










































































































































































































































































































C!ass__ 

Book_ 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 











Curing Catarrh 

COUGHS AND COLDS 



R. L. ALSAKER, M.D. 

AUTHOR OF “EATING FOR HEALTH AND EFFICIENCY,” 
“GETTING RID OF RHEUMATISM,” 

“CURING DISEASES OF THE HEART AND ARTERIES,” ETC. 



GRANT PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc. 
1133 Broadway, New York 
1924 


~R Ci 3(0 

.A-* 

/<? Zf 


, Copyright, 1917, 

By FRANK E. MORRISON 

NEW YORK 


Copyright, 1924, 

By GRANT PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc. 


All rights reserved 



Printed in the United States of America 




CONTENTS 

Part I 

PAGE 

The Bespiratory Apparatus ..... 27 

Miscellaneous Information . ., . r . : . 32 

Cause of Colds.52 

Symptoms of Colds.. . , 62 

Treatment of Colds .. . * . 66 

Prevention of Colds ....... 78 

Part II 

Chronic Catarrh. . . . 91 

Believing Catarrh. .< 104 

Curing Chronic Catarrh.106 

Eating in Chronic Catarrh.109 

Special Menus.123 

Coughs . ...... 133 

Acute Catarrhal Tonsillitis ..... 138 

Chronic Tonsillitis.150 

Acute Catarrhal Laryngitis.153 

Chronic Catarrhal Laryngitis .... 156 

Adenoids.. 159 

Acute Bronchitis. 177 

Chronic Bronchitis ....... 189 

Hay Fever.. • • 205 

Asthm*a. *••••• 216 

Intestinal Indigestion ...,#. 234 

Food Classification ........ 253 

Cooking Hints ....*•••• 260 
























Books That Teach 

The Alsaker Way 

To Health and Efficiency 


Curing Catarrh, Coughs 
and Colds 


By Mail $3.00 


Getting Rid of Rheumatism “ “ 3.00 

Dieting Diabetes and Bright’s 
Disease “ “ 3.00 

Curing Constipation and 
Appendicitis “ “ 3.00 

Conquering Consumption “ “ 3.00 

Curing Diseases of Heart and 
Arteries “ “ 3.00 

How to Cure Headaches “ “ 3.00 

How to Live on 3 Meals a 
Day “ “ 2.00 

Maintaining Health “ “ 3.75 

Eating for Health and Effi¬ 
ciency, 5 Volumes “ “ 10.00 


GRANT PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc. 
1133 Broadway, New York 

Distributors and Publishers of the Alsaker 
Books, and other Inspirational, Business 
and Health Books by Standard Authors 




CURING CATARRH, 
COUGHS AND COLDS 

Facing Some Facts 

For seven years there has been be¬ 
fore the public a book containing a 
few more than one hundred pages, en¬ 
titled, “Curing Catarrh, Coughs and 
Colds.” This book has been very 
kindly received, thousands of copies 
having been distributed to all parts of 
the world. Many readers have writ¬ 
ten to the author and to the publishers 
expressing their appreciation for 
benefits received. Some have told of 
the sense of smell or hearing regained. 
Many have written with delight of 
their freedom from the annoying 
catarrhal discharges, after they had 
given up hope of cure. 

7 


CURING CATARRH , 


Now there is a demand for a more 
complete discussion of this subject, 
and the author, urged by the pub¬ 
lishers, will try to make this a more 
useful book than the small one that 
preceded it, under the same title. 

In writing a work of this kind it is 
very easy to use technical expressions, 
but that curtails the usefulness of such 
a book. It is easy to use the so-called 
scientific jargon of one’s trade or 
craft. It is more difficult to convey 
the facts in language so common and 
clear that the unprofessional reader 
does not have to resort too often to the 
dictionary. But as the object of both 
author and publishers is to reveal help¬ 
ful thought and place useful truth be¬ 
fore the public, I shall adhere to a 
simple, clear mode of expression. 

Most of the highly organized trades, 
8 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


crafts and arts have their peculiar 
codes. The medical profession has its 
code of ethics, which on the surface 
seems a thing of beauty and joy, but 
it is a very peculiar instrument. At 
least, it has been construed to mean 
that physicians are not to publish the 
truth to the public. Looking into this 
matter from the standpoints of 
esthetics, true ethics and higher mo¬ 
rality it is very difficult to find justi¬ 
fication for such an attitude. If we, 
through the study and the practice of 
the healing art, become expert and 
learn superior health truths, it is not 
only our right to make these truths 
public—it is our duty to do so. The 
public suffers from our mistakes; it is 
only just that the same public should 
have full benefit of any light that we 
can give. 


9 


CURING CATARRH , 


Who supports us as professional 
men? The public. 

To whom is our first allegiance due ? 
To those who support us. 

No trade, no craft, no art needs a 
higher code of ethics than the Golden 
Rule. There is no higher human code. 
No human being needs to apologize 
for his life if he has been of great serv¬ 
ice. As health is the foundation on 
which lasting success in life is built, 
the work of helping the public to at¬ 
tain improved health is its own justi¬ 
fication. 

During the years that my books 
have been in circulation I have re¬ 
ceived much commendation and some 
condemnation. One of the chief criti¬ 
cisms of the catarrh book has been: 
“There is nothing new in that book. 
I have always known it.” 

10 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


If the reader in the future is 
tempted to write that to the pub¬ 
lishers, let said reader tell the pub¬ 
lishers at the same time the name of 
any other book giving this systema¬ 
tized knowledge. Also, let said reader 
remember that if he has always known 
this, he has shown great weakness in 
not living his knowledge. This knowl¬ 
edge put into practice prevents 
catarrh. 

But why should there be anything 
new in this book? What is needed is 
sincere understanding and application 
of old truths. All fundamental truths 
are old. The laws of nature work to¬ 
day as they worked ten thousand years 
ago. The same sun that gilded the 
Tower of Babel smiles on the Wool- 
worth Building. The same moon that 
shed its pale light on Antony and 
11 


CURING CATARRH , 


Cleopatra smiles on the couples spoon¬ 
ing at night on the upper deck of the 
Fifth Avenue busses. 

The earth, the moon, the sun and 
the stars are coursing through the vast 
depths of space in obedience to the 
same laws that ruled them when the 
human race had not begun. 

The basic facts of life are today 
what they were yesterday, last cen¬ 
tury, a thousand years ago and in the 
time that Egypt was building her vast 
pyramids. 

The facts of life are not new, but 
the human understanding changes. 
As the mind of man becomes more 
illuminated, more and more truth is 
apprehended and comprehended. The 
truth is a liberator. When an indi¬ 
vidual grasps his rightful share of 
12 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


truth and puts it to use in his life he 
frees himself from disease. 

Those who wish to rid themselves of 
catarrh should not look for novelties. 
They should search for the truth, and 
when they find it they should make it 
their own by living it. 

We are not attempting to place be¬ 
fore the public a book exploiting 
some passing fad. “Curing Catarrh, 
Coughs and Colds” was the first book 
dealing with this subject that gave a 
clear, comprehensive, workable plan 
for conquering this trouble, without at¬ 
tempting to exploit any fads, fancies 
and fallacies. The policy in this en¬ 
larged version will remain the same. 

During my first year in medical col¬ 
lege I had a very brilliant original 
idea. I was so pleased with it that I 
reduced it to writing, knowing that, 
13 


CURING CATARRH, 


later the world would be happy to re¬ 
ceive it. A few months later I was 
reading some of the writings of 
Hippocrates, a gentleman who lived 
several centuries before the Christian 
Era. Great was my shock when I dis¬ 
covered that Hippocrates had pub¬ 
lished this brilliant original idea of 
mine, over two thousand years ago, 
using my words almost verbatim, with¬ 
out consulting me! 

That cured me of claiming novelty 
for my ideas. Basic truth is eternal. 

Another serious objection to the 
book has been that, “I have tried it 
and it does not work.” I do not doubt 
the sincerity of those who make this 
objection. As explained in the body 
of the book, if catarrhal disorders have 
progressed so far that the tissues of 
the body are badly degenerated, there 
14 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


is seldom complete regeneration, and 
hence no complete cure. But the 
knowledge between these covers will 
result in cures in at least nine out of 
ten cases of catarrh, if it is intelli¬ 
gently and persistently used. 

This is a frank and intimate book. 
Why should it not be? What is more 
intimate than one’s health? You will 
find many personal experiences from 
my own work. That is necessary, for 
I have only my own work to draw 
from. The names of the cases are not 
given for obvious reasons, and in two 
or three instances I have altered the 
occupations of the patients so that no 
one in my own city can recognize them. 
Otherwise the stories are true to life. 

My reason for giving these personal 
stories is that they are the most helpful 
items in teaching health truths. Some 
15 


CURING CATARRH 3 


will object that I am attempting to 
display myself as a superior sort of a 
physician. I make no claims for my¬ 
self, but the system which gives us 
good results is far superior to the old 
system which produced no results. In 
an extensive professional experience I 
have never cured anybody of anything, 
hut a multitude of individuals who 
were supposed to be incurable have re¬ 
covered under my care. Why? Be¬ 
cause I educated them to live in 
harmony with the laws of nature, and 
nature did the curing. It is just as 
Pare used to say some hundreds of 
years ago: “God healed them.” 

There is no curative power in me. 
There is no healing power in any doc¬ 
tor, or in any individual of any creed 
or color. 

There is a law running through 
16 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


human life that those are healthy who 
deserve to be well. This is the law that 
I expound, and that is the reason that 
my advice has been requested by peo¬ 
ple on every continent of our globe. 
The reason that I have been able to 
help so many is that I realize my own 
unimportance, but at the same time 
comprehend the importance of the 
great natural law that rules our lives. 

To illustrate why some think these 
teachings do not work, let us see what 
happened to a gentleman who came to 
me in the fall of 1923. He was over 
fifty years of age. This was his tale: 
“X have for years been a reader of your 
books. I have not only read them, but 
I have used them for holiday presents. 
But the books don’t seem to help me to 
overcome my catarrh.” 

IT 


CURING CATARRH , 


“Have you followed the directions?” 
I inquired. 

“Yes,” he asserted. 

“What have you been in the habit 
of eating?” I asked. 

“For breakfast we generally have 
fruit, cooked cereal with sugar and 
cream, bacon, eggs and toast; for lunch 
I generally take a glass of milk, a ham 
sandwich and a piece of pie; for dinner 
our plan is meat, bread, potatoes, 
sometimes a salad, sometimes a cooked 
summer vegetable and always a made 
dessert.” 

I curiously inquired if he had found 
an eating plan like that outlined in any 
of my books. He admitted that he 
had not. 

He further informed me that he 
never exercised, that he took no meas¬ 
ures to maintain an active skin and a 
18 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


free circulation—in fact, he took no 
health precautions whatever. 

“At first you said that you followed 
direction in my books,” I commented. 
“After thinking it over, did you ever 
observe any of the rules and regula¬ 
tions in those books?” 

“I never did,” he admitted. “But 
your books have so many cheerful 
human touches that I enjoy reading 
them,” he added. Then both of us 
laughed. 

He engaged me to help him to re¬ 
gain his lost health. We put into prac¬ 
tice such knowledge as you will find 
expounded in this volume. Six weeks 
later he was so improved that he could 
smell, something he had been unable 
to do for several years. He continued 
to live right and made a good recovery. 
Under the heading of Chronic Catarrh 
19 


CURING CATARRH , 


you will find out how this gentleman 
conquered his catarrh. 

Of course, my teachings were worth¬ 
less to him so long as he did not live 
them. He did not mean to misrepre¬ 
sent or prevaricate, hut he was careful 
not to apply any of the teachings until 
he had personal supervision! 

To show how effective the teachings 
in this book are—when they are lived 
—let us have the tale of a gentleman 
who was very ill when he was seventy 
years old. On account of his age, a 
nervous breakdown, a subnormal heart 
and deranged kidneys with other ills, 
his doctors informed the family that he 
could not live another month. Then 
the family had the happy thought that 
inasmuch as he was doomed it would 
do no harm to call me! We stopped 
using medicines, and we began to smile 
20 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


occasionally, and we refused to “yield 
to the inevitable.” We gave nature a 
chance. 

Six months later the gentleman was 
regularly attending to his business 
again. 

But what has this to do with catarrh? 
Listen to the patient’s own words: 

“When I was ten years old I hurt 
my head, and although I do not re¬ 
member about catarrh previous to that, 
I have had it ever since. As it has been 
with me for sixty years I thought it 
would remain with me to the end. But 
as I have been recovering in other ways 
I have noticed that my catarrh has been 
vanishing. At the end of six months it 
had cleared up so completely that 
sometimes I would go an entire fore¬ 
noon without soiling a handkerchief. 

21 


CURING CATARRH, 


Now, at the end of nine months, I am 
not aware of any catarrh.” 

Yes, the truth between these covers 
is effective when it is lived. 

Within the past year a singer came 
to me. She told me this tale: “I have 
had some of your books for years, and 
some of my best friends have been 
patrons of yours. I do what your 
books say, but I don’t get the desired 
results.” She too thought that she 
was stating the truth. 

The young woman had enlarged 
tonsils, pharyngitis and laryngitis. 
For years she had had nasal catarrh, 
which was very annoying because the 
secretions trickled into her throat. 
Her sense of smell was almost absent. 
Her high notes had vanished, and one 
had to be more than gracious to com¬ 
pliment her singing in the lower reg- 
22 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


ister. She was impatient for results, 
almost to the point of hysteria. 
Finally I told her that if she did not 
intend to give nature a chance it was 
useless to come to me. Then she be¬ 
gan to cooperate in the right spirit. 
Within two months she largely re¬ 
gained her sense of smell, also ability 
to use her high notes; she also over¬ 
came most of the discharge from the 
nose in that time. She had no treat¬ 
ment, but she received personal edu¬ 
cation in the correct mode of living. 

My teachings did not work in her 
case either, until she started to follow 
them; and so it is with most of those 
who write and say that these teachings 
do not work. The knowledge is in 
the book, but I can’t drive it into the 
mind of the readers as I do with those 
who come to me for personal direction. 

23 


CURING CATARRH 3 

Catarrhal conditions weaken the 
whole body; they tend to produce 
other kinds of ill health; they often 
are the foundation on which other 
dangerous illness is built; they fre¬ 
quently are the chief cause of pre¬ 
mature death. Many pay little or no 
attention to catarrh because it does 
not seem to be immediately danger¬ 
ous. That is a great mistake, for ca¬ 
tarrh undermines the constitution. 

In most cases catarrh is curable, 
Ointments, salves and internal medi¬ 
cation often give temporary ease, but 
these agents do not cure. 

Catarrh is a reflection of internal 
wrongs. To eradicate the trouble it is 
necessary to restore the general health 
—to improve the quality of the blood. 

Wherever there is mucous mem- 
24 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


brane there can be catarrhal mani¬ 
festations. It is impossible to go into 
detail about catarrh in every location. 
It is catarrh no matter where it mani¬ 
fests. And it yields to right living 
whether it is localized in the eyes, the 
nose, the throat, the stomach, the in¬ 
testines or the bladder. The funda¬ 
mental treatment is the same. The 
local treatments sometimes are sooth¬ 
ing; they often relieve, but they can¬ 
not cure. 

The real cure for catarrh is to live 
so as to produce a stream of pure 
blood, which will in time build a 
healthy body, including healthy 
mucous membrane. 

To get the full benefit due you from 
this book, do not read only the little 
item that you think fits your case, 
25 


CURING CATARRH, 


Read the entire book. By all means 
read the articles on Acute Catarrh and 
Chronic Catarrh and the chapter of 
cooking hints. 


26 


CURING CATARRH, 
COUGHS AND COLDS 

PART I 

The Respiratory Apparatus 

The diseases which will be discussed 
in this volume are localized chiefly in 
the respiratory or breathing apparatus. 
Colds or catarrhs may manifest in any 
mucous membrane, but the lungs and 
the passages leading thereto are the 
most common sites. 

The first part of the air passages is 
the nasal cavities. The nose is divided 
into two cavities by the central parti¬ 
tion (nasal septum). These cavities 
are very irregular structures into which 
open recesses and large and small cells. 

27 


CURING CATARRH ‘ 


All parts of these cavities are lined 
with mucous membrane. This mem¬ 
brane keeps itself moist and lubricates 
itself in health by secreting mucus. 
When the mucus-secreting function is 
perverted, the mucous membrane se¬ 
cretes either too much or too little 
mucus, or it secretes mucus of poor 
quality. On account of the many 
nooks, corners and cells in the nasal 
cavities the mucus sometimes is not 
drained off but is left in some cell 
or cells, where it decomposes. This 
produces bad odor—the trouble is 
called ozena. Ozena can not estab¬ 
lish itself in healthy individuals, but 
once it has taken firm hold it may per¬ 
sist even after the individual has re¬ 
gained health. 

We should always inhale through 
the nose, because the nasal cavities 


28 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


warm the air, remove dust and other 
irritating matters from it, and moisten 
it, thus making the air fit to enter the 
lungs. It makes no special difference 
whether one exhales through the nose 
or through the mouth, hut the inhala¬ 
tion should be through the nose. 

After the nose comes the pharynx, 
commonly called the throat. This is 
the common passage for food, water 
and air. 

Into the pharynx opens the larynx 
or voice box. When this becomes in¬ 
flamed we have the troublesome ill 
called laryngitis. Below the larynx 
is a large tube, the trachea, usually 
called the windpipe. 

At the base of the neck the trachea 
branches into two large tubes, called 
the right and left bronchial tubes* 
These tubes give off many branches, 
29 


CURING CATARRH ’ 


which divide and subdivide, until the 
lungs appear much like the top of a 
tree turned upside down. 

At the end of the finest air tubes are 
the air cells. These cells are made 
up of fine mucous membrane struc¬ 
ture. On one side is the air that 
we inhale and on the other side of the 
membrane is a beautiful, lace-like net¬ 
work of tiny blood-vessels. The blood 
in these vessels is impure, containing 
various kinds of waste, and especially 
carbonic acid gas. The blood gives up 
its carbonic acid gas, which passes 
through the membrane of the air cells 
and is exhaled; in exchange the blood 
takes oxygen out of the inhaled air, 
which passes inward through the mu¬ 
cous membrane and is taken up by the 
blood-stream. The blood goes back to 
the heart with its load of life-giving 
30 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


oxygen, and the heart sends it to all 
parts of the body. 

This blood purification in the lungs 
is a wonderful process, and it is a very 
vital one; if it stops life ceases. This 
is why we are so insistent on ventilation 
at night. Breathing impure air fills 
the body with poisons and wastes and 
depresses the vital functions. 

We can live several weeks without 
food; we can live several days without 
water; but we can only live about five 
minutes without air. 

You can see how important it is for 
us to breathe properly, and in order to 
breathe properly one must keep the 
breathing apparatus in fine condition. 
Those who have colds, catarrhs, ade¬ 
noids and bronchitis cannot breathe 
properly. 

It is not difficult to keep the lungs 

31 


CURING CATARRH 


and air passages in good condition and 
it is worth a great deal more than the 
efforts we have to make. All we have 
to do is to live according to the laws 
of Nature. In other words, if we be¬ 
have ourselves Nature keeps the 
breathing apparatus in fine condition. 

Miscellaneous Information 

The ills that we shall deal with in 
this volume are very closely related, 
and they are very common. People 
suffer needlessly and die prematurely 
on account of these diseases. Almost 
all individuals have a touch of them 
from time to time, and some suffer at 
all times from one or more of them. 
And still it is easy to prevent or cure 
them. 

The word cold is a misnomer. 
‘Catching cold” is a misleading phrase. 

32 


COUGHS AND COLDS 

What is known as a cold is really a 
fever with local inflammation varying 
from mild to severe. Usually the tem¬ 
perature of the body does not rise very 
high, but when the cold is severe there 
may be several degrees of fever. The 
cold manifests in the mucous mem¬ 
brane, but it is not a disease of the 
mucous membrane; the mucous mem¬ 
brane manifestations are only symp¬ 
toms. A cold is a disease of the blood 
and digestive organs. To be more ex¬ 
plicit, it is an indication that the di¬ 
gestion and the blood are deranged. 

It is generally believed that expo¬ 
sure to cold, damp air or to draughts 
will cause colds. This is not the real 
cause. The body has to be prepared 
for a cold through improper living— 
the way has to be paved for it—and 
then exposure to the rigors of the cli- 
33 


CURING CATARRH ' 


mate or dampness may be the trigger 
that sets off the cold. Those who keep 
their digestive organs and their blood¬ 
stream in good condition never de¬ 
velop colds. 

Periodical colds are easy to prevent. 

Catarrh may affect any part of the 
body that is lined with mucous mem¬ 
brane. So we have catarrh of the nose, 
throat, air passages leading to the 
lungs, and even catarrh of the lungs 
themselves; of the stomach, bowels, 
gall duct and gall bladder; of the uri¬ 
nary bladder; and of the ears and the 
eyes. This is only a partial list. But 
catarrh, no matter where located, is 
one and the same thing. 

Acute catarrh is generally known as 
a cold. To clarify matters we shall in 
this volume refer to acute catarrh as 
cold, and to chronic catarrh simply as 
34 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


catarrh. Chronic catarrh is a low 
grade of inflammation of the mucous 
membrane, covering a long period of 
time. In fact some have it from the 
cradle to the grave, and it is often a 
great aid in bringing death. It helps 
to reduce the resistance in many cases 
so that pneumonia and tuberculosis get 
a foothold. The cheering part is that 
almost every case of catarrh is curable. 

Hay fever is a form of catarrh. 
Those who wish to get rid of this nui¬ 
sance can do so, and they do not have 
to travel to accomplish it. They can 
cure themselves of hay fever right in 
their own homes, without fooling with 
serums made of pollen or such non¬ 
sense. Let them live as directed later 
on in this volume and they will become 
so healthy that the mucous membrane 
35 


CURING CATARRH ‘ 


of the nose will not cause them any 
trouble. 

Asthma is generally due to lung ir¬ 
ritation that is at least partly catar¬ 
rhal in nature. It is usually based on 
indigestion and acidity of the system, 
covering a long period of time, and it 
is a curable disease. It requires right 
knowledge and will power to overcome 
it. Those who live as advocated in 
this book will not have asthma. The 
form of asthma usually called cardiac 
asthma, which is due to a bad heart, is 
not always curable. If the heart dis¬ 
ease gets well the asthma gets well, but 
if the heart disease persists so does the 
asthma. To take drugs for asthma is 
foolish. 

Acute bronchitis is a form of cold. 

To avoid the risk of prolonged and 
serious disease, it should be treated 


36 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


with a fast, as directed under the treat¬ 
ment for quickly curing colds. 

Chronic bronchitis, which is gener¬ 
ally looked upon as incurable, is 
chronic catarrh localizing in the bron¬ 
chial tubes. Those who learn to live 
as they should get rid of it almost 100 
times in 100 cases. There may be a 
few cases where the body is so weak 
and debilitated and the bronchial tubes 
so degenerated that no recovery can 
take place, but these are the rare ex¬ 
ceptions. Chronic bronchitis is at 
times very stubborn. But the only dif¬ 
ficulty I have had in leading these pa¬ 
tients back to health is that they are 
often advanced in age and do not want 
to change their ways. Then the proper 
thing to do is to let them live in the 
old way and suffer in the old way, or 
37 


CURING CATARRH\ 


let them take their pain-killers, which 
often prove to be body-killers. 

Catarrh of the stomach is due to ir¬ 
ritation coming from improper eating. 
The remedy is obvious. Under the 
natural treatment these patients soon 
recover. 

Catarrh of the bowels shows that the 
individual eats and drinks wrong. The 
form known as mucous colitis is 
chronic catarrh of the large intestine. 
It is also looked upon as incurable. I 
have had cases yield in less than a 
month, and then again I have seen 
cases that refused to yield completely 
in spite of the best of care and the 
most careful living. Correct living of¬ 
fers the only reasonable hope of a cure. 

Catarrh of the ears is usually an ex¬ 
tension of colds and catarrhs of the 
nose and throat. The Eustachian tubes 
38 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


extend from the throat to the ears. 
These tubes become swollen and in¬ 
flamed and the ears are affected. Ca¬ 
tarrhal deafness is quite common. In 
the beginning every case can be cured 
without giving any local treatments. 
Get rid of the bad physical condition 
underlying the catarrh of the ear and 
the hearing will be restored. But al¬ 
low the condition to continue for sev¬ 
eral years and the hearing may be per¬ 
manently lost. Whenever the Eusta¬ 
chian tubes are inflamed the hearing 
deteriorates. 

Catarrh of the gall ducts is due to 
improper eating, followed by irritation 
of these ducts. The result is bad com¬ 
plexion and poor color of the eyeballs. 
Sometimes the patient becomes green¬ 
ish or yellowish in color, and this con¬ 
dition we call jaundice. Correct the 
39 


CURING CATARRH , 


eating and the jaundice corrects itself. 

Nearly every case of catarrh can re¬ 
cover, and on the average it takes only 
a few months. It is not necessary to 
travel or change climate to rid the sys¬ 
tem of catarrh. It is as easy to get rid 
of catarrh in New York and Illinois as 
it is in Arizona and Colorado. Those 
who live in the fine climates of the 
West know that catarrh is about as 
prevalent there as elsewhere. It is sur¬ 
prising how soon correct living will 
overcome all symptoms of catarrh in 
the average individual. 

The vast majority of our population 
suffers from colds and catarrhs. I 
wonder how long people would handi¬ 
cap themselves in this way if they 
realized how easily and quickly they 
can overcome the condition. 

There is nothing mysterious or diffi- 
40 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


cult about it. Read on and learn how 
to rid the body of this nuisance. The 
best part of it is that in getting rid of 
habitual colds and catarrhs the individ¬ 
ual puts his body into such splendid 
condition that he will not develop other 
diseases. And so far as germs are con¬ 
cerned, they are present, but they do 
not cause colds and catarrhs. 

Sickness is a bad habit, not a neces¬ 
sity. 

To demonstrate how easy it is to get 
away from colds and catarrhs, espe¬ 
cially in early life, I shall tell you 
about a young man. He was about 
twenty-one years old and had suffered 
with catarrh from the time of birth. 
He had catarrh all the time, and dur¬ 
ing the winter months it was custom¬ 
ary for him to have severe colds. What 
money he could spare he invested in 
41 


CURING CATARRH 


catarrh cures, treatments by special¬ 
ists and nasal operations. Whenever 
he got a few dollars ahead the special¬ 
ists would discover that he needed an 
operation to correct some ill in the 
nose. 

In spite of change of climate and 
constant medicating and medical at¬ 
tention the young man grew worse. 
In his case the sure cures did not cure. 

At last it dawned upon him that 
operations and medicines are no part 
of the natural game of life. The young 
man learned how to take care of him¬ 
self and especially how and what to 
eat. Within a month his nose cleared 
up and he has not suffered from ca¬ 
tarrh since. During the past five 
years he has not been ill in any way 
and he has not even had a cold. He is 
now in splendid health and he knows 
42 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


how to live so as to remain healthy. 
He is doing good work and has out¬ 
distanced his former companions in ac¬ 
complishments. This has been made 
possible through the mental acuteness 
that comes with good health. He has 
trained himself into health and effi¬ 
ciency and is traveling the road of Suc¬ 
cess. His old catarrh not only clogged 
up his nose and gave him poor physi¬ 
cal health, but it partly clogged his 
mind. 

I could tell you about many similar 
instances. Those who are determined 
to make a successful journey on life’s 
road must have health, and no one is 
healthy who has catarrh! 

But it is easy to get rid of catarrh. 
Right knowledge and the determina¬ 
tion to put the knowledge into practice 
will accomplish the feat. 

43 


CURING CATARRH ’ 


It works in infancy and in ad¬ 
vanced years. It may be well to illus¬ 
trate by relating a recent incident. 

A few months ago, on the same day, 
a baby not quite one year old, and a 
gentleman of sixty-eight years came 
for personal consultation. Both were 
troubled with persistent nasal ca¬ 
tarrh, cough and rattling in the chest 
denoting bronchitis. Baby Jean had 
had this condition over a month. Mr. 
W. complained that it had been grow¬ 
ing worse for several years. 

Upon investigation it was found 
that Baby Jean vomited after most of 
her meals, which still consisted mostly 
of milk. She also vomited when given 
orange juice in the water. Cheesy 
curds passed through the bowels. The 
little girl had feedings of seven ounces 
of milk with two ounces of water 
44 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


added, at each meal. The mother 
could not understand what could be 
wrong, for she was so careful of the 
child. 

This was the explanation given to 
the mother: The curds in the bowels 
show that the child cannot digest all 
of the milk taken. The vomiting after 
meals indicates that the stomach ob¬ 
jects to the quantity of food given at 
one time. The tongue is white with 
red spots, instead of being smooth and 
pink, which shows that the stomach 
and other parts of the digestive tract 
are upset. 

In other words, the baby’s digestive 
organs are overworked. What is a 
reasonable procedure? To give these 
organs a partial rest. 

On that basis, we temporarily re¬ 
duced each feeding to four ounces of 
45 


CURING CATARRH , 


milk mixed with two ounces of water, 
and kept the feedings four hours apart 
during the day and gave nothing but 
water at night. Twice a day we gave 
two teaspoonfuls of orange juice in 
the drinking water. Instead of let¬ 
ting the child drink unlimited amounts 
of water at a time, we kept the quan¬ 
tity down to six ounces each time 
water was demanded. 

What were the results? The vomit¬ 
ing stopped immediately. Within 
four days no more curds could be 
found in the stools. Within eleven 
days the catarrhal condition had sub¬ 
sided, and the most careful chest ex¬ 
amination failed to reveal any further 
sign of bronchitis. 

The mother was instructed to in¬ 
crease the feeding very gradually, and 
if the child in the future shows an ex- 
46 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


cessive discharge of mucus, curds in 
the stools, or a tendency to vomit, the 
mother will know that it is time to give 
the baby’s digestive organs a partial 
rest. Children in condition like that 
usually continue to be overfed, and as 
a result they long remain ill, and often 
die after suffering for several months, 
A little good science plus some good 
sense will preserve such lives. 

Let us leave infancy and return to 
Mr. W. He was quite dubious about 
such treatment, but a friend had re¬ 
ceived such great benefits that he de¬ 
cided to give the matter a good trial. 
He watched the baby with great inter¬ 
est and astonishment. It was difficult 
for him to realize that a child’s health 
could be restored by reducing the feed¬ 
ing to a point where the digestive 
organs could do full duty. But the 
47 


CURING CATARRH , 


baby’s rapid recovery convinced him 
that “there must be something in it.” 

Mr. W. was over six feet tall, 
weighed over 230 pounds, had a pro¬ 
truding abdomen and could with diffi¬ 
culty climb stairs and hills. He had 
created a great organization which 
made and sold a product that is known 
all over the civilized world. But he 
found that as his waist line increased 
and his breathing capacity diminished, 
his mental capacity was growing less. 

He had for years been eating three 
meals a day, consuming meat two or 
three times daily. He enjoyed heavy 
breakfasts, bounteous lunches, and 
large dinners. 

But he preferred health to incorrect 
eating. 

He was informed that his catarrh, 
colds and bronchitis were due to auto- 
48 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


intoxication, and that the autointoxi¬ 
cation was chiefly caused by an over¬ 
consumption of sweets, meats and 
starches, and an underconsumption of 
fresh vegetables. He was further told 
that he was eating excessive quantities 
of food, for he was eating as much 
when he was nearing seventy as he 
did at the age of twenty-five. 

Those who desire fine health cannot 
eat as much after the age of thirty as 
they did before, especially if they grow 
prosperous and decrease their phys¬ 
ical activity. Age does not need as 
much food as youth does. 

So Mr. W. started to exercise a lit¬ 
tle. He ate less of meat, bread, pota¬ 
toes and sweets. He partook more lib¬ 
erally of fresh berries, melons, fresh 
fruits and the succulent vegetables. In 
less than ten days he found his breath- 
49 


CURING CATARRH, 


ing improved. Within a month he lost 
fifteen pounds and while so doing 
gained strength. He also lost his 
cough and quit worrying about his 
chest. 

Within two months he was weigh¬ 
ing 200 pounds, the catarrh and bron¬ 
chitis had vanished, and the gentleman 
announced that he had not felt so well 
for years. 

The results here given are not un¬ 
usual. Children, when correctly 
treated, yield rapidly. Not all get as 
quick results as did Baby Jean, how¬ 
ever. 

Older individuals yield more slowly. 
Not everybody can overcome bron¬ 
chitis of years’ standing, but most of 
them can. A few can get rid of it 
quickly. However, those who are past 
the age of fifty and have had the 
50 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


trouble for several years should not ex¬ 
pect to overcome it short of several 
months. It is useless to waste time 
trying to overcome this ill through the 
use of medicine. 

Nature heals when we live so that all 
the internal organs are kept pure and 
clean, and this can be accomplished by 
eating and drinking right, exercising 
enough to keep the circulation normal, 
and maintaining the elimination of the 
body—from lungs, skin, kidneys and 
bowels. 


51 


CURING CATARRH, 


Cause of Colds 

Anything that irritates or weakens 
the mucous membrane may in the end 
cause a cold. Those who are very care¬ 
less about their manner of living inva¬ 
riably suffer for their errors. It may 
require weeks, months or even years 
to reduce the physical resistance so 
that troublesome diseases can establish 
themselves in the body, but improper 
living alwavs results in physical dis¬ 
aster. 

Why some persons contract one dis¬ 
ease and others suffer from a different 
ill, when they make about the same 
mistakes, we do not know. But we do 
know that all have a vulnerable spot 
or perhaps several weak points, and 
here disease localizes when we deviate 
too much from the normal. If the mu- 
52 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


cous membrane is the weak spot, then 
colds and catarrhs are generally the 
abnormal conditions that ensue. 

There are many factors that cause 
colds. The most important one is im¬ 
proper eating. Of late years we have 
been informed that germs are the 
cause. If bacteria really are the cause 
of colds, we could never be rid of 
colds, for the bacteria that we find in 
colds are with us always—like the 
poor. But the truth is that the bac¬ 
teria, though present, have nothing to 
do with the colds. We can forget 
about the germs, for if we keep the 
body well balanced and the blood sweet 
and clean and the digestive tract in 
good order there will be no colds. 

Most colds are due to gastroin¬ 
testinal (digestive tract) disturbances 
springing from improper eating. The 
53 


CURING CATARRH , 


colds may come from eating too much 
of protein, sugar, starch or fat. They 
may be due to undermastication, com¬ 
bining too many foods, eating too fre¬ 
quently, eating too much meat, eating 
when nothing should be taken, as in 
times of great excitement, worry and 
weariness. They are usually due to 
overeating of concentrated foods, tak¬ 
ing so much of them that the digestion 
is unable to cope with the excess; then 
the food goes into abnormal fermenta¬ 
tion, which produces poisons that ir¬ 
ritate the entire body, after being ab¬ 
sorbed by the blood. Some of the ir¬ 
ritation is borne by the mucous mem¬ 
brane, which is compelled to secrete an 
excess of mucus to relieve the annoy¬ 
ance. 

When a baby shows signs of a cold 
immediately after birth it is usually 
54 


COUGHS AND COLDS 

because the mother has eaten too much 
during the period of pregnancy. 
When the child has a cold a week or 
ten days after birth it is generally be¬ 
cause it is fed too much or too fre¬ 
quently. Sometimes it is due to 
poisonous matters coming from the 
mother’s blood. Nine times out of 
ten children with colds are overfed. 
These children often have skin erup¬ 
tions in addition to the colds. When 
babies are fed so much that the skin, 
kidneys, bowels and lungs can not rid 
the system of the excessive impurities 
the mucous membrane of the head is 
pressed into service. If the supply of 
poison in the blood is still too great the 
skin may become so irritated that in¬ 
flammation ensues and then we have 
external eruptions. 

It is a very simple process and any 
55 


CURING CATARRH , 


one can understand it. When it is un¬ 
derstood it can be prevented. The 
children are fed improperly, generally 
too often and too much. The result 
is indigestion. Indigestion always 
produces toxic (poisonous) matters in 
the digestive tract. Some of these 
poisonous liquids and gases are ab¬ 
sorbed into the blood. When a great 
excess of them enters the blood-stream 
all the tissues of the body are irritated. 
The system tries to excrete these ma¬ 
terials by the natural excretory chan¬ 
nels, and failing in this presses the mu¬ 
cous membrane into service for extra 
excretory work. The toxic matters 
are so irritating that they cause in¬ 
flammation of the mucous membranes, 
which in self-defense excrete an excess 
of mucus to soothe the irritated parts. 
And this process we call a cold. 

56 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


It is normal and natural for all mu¬ 
cous membranes to secrete mucus to 
moisten and lubricate their own sur¬ 
faces. Mucus is an albuminous lubri¬ 
cant, which should be secreted in suf¬ 
ficient quantities to keep the mucous 
membranes in good condition, but the 
excretion of large quantities of mucus 
is abnormal. 

The same condition which manifests 
in excessive secretion of mucus also 
results in enlargement of lymphatic 
glands and lymphatic vessels, so we 
find children suffering from the catar¬ 
rhal state with enlarged tonsils, ade¬ 
noids and enlarged lymphatic glands 
in the neck. 

The cold may be referred to as of 
the nose, of the head or of the throat, 
but the causes are the same. 

Less common causes of colds are ir- 
57 


CURING CATARRH , 


ritations due to mechanical irritants, 
excessive heat and chemical agents. 
Breathing of poisonous gases or va¬ 
porized liquids may result in colds. 
Colds and even pneumonia may result 
from the administration of chloroform 
and ether. 

Any kind of dust may irritate the 
mucous membrane enough to produce 
a cold, if the physical resistance is low. 
Miner’s and marblecutter’s consump¬ 
tion is largely due to the excess of dust 
in the air. First this irritates the respi¬ 
ratory passages, producing excess of 
mucus secretion. After a while 
the irritated and overworked mucous 
membrane is weakened and then it is 
a favorable site for serious disease to 
develop. Tuberculosis often results. 
It is first irritation, then inflammation 
and then ulceration. 

58 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


In the same way excessive heat or 
cold will produce irritation of the mu¬ 
cous membrane, resulting in a cold. 

Some people take cold and suffer 
for weeks and even months. The win¬ 
ter is the favorite time for protracted 
colds. These colds are luxuries easily 
dispensed with. 

Constant breathing of impure air is 
a great aid in catching cold, for it pre¬ 
vents the entry of sufficient oxygen 
into the blood. Then the internal com¬ 
bustion is not as complete as it should 
be and the result is the retention of 
toxic matters within the body. 

Those who fail to eat fresh fruits 
and vegetables also get into a toxic 
condition. They overeat of the con¬ 
centrated staple foods, such as cured 
meats, refined sugars, cereals, espe¬ 
cially white flour products, and fats, 
59 


CURING CATARRH ’ 


all of which are comparatively poor 
in the salts that are essential for physi¬ 
cal welfare. These salts are found in 
abundance in whole wheat products, 
raw fruits and raw vegetables, and in 
the fresh milk that has not been 
cooked. Cooking destroys some of the 
salts so that the body is unable to use 
them. Also, in cooking vegetables and 
draining them, a large portion of the 
salts is lost. 

Anything that lowers physical re¬ 
sistance increases the tendency to have 
colds. Tea, tobacco, coffee, alcohol, 
worry, anger, jealousy, sexual excess, 
prolonged exposure to heat, cold or 
moisture, overwork, fatigue, laziness, 
close housing and too warm clothing 
are some of the factors that produce 
colds, but improper eating is by far the 
most important cause. 

60 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


Draughts are often given as the 
cause, and it is common for people to 
say that they caught cold in church, 
theater or cars. This is impossible if 
the body is in good condition. How¬ 
ever, a draught or exposure will lessen 
the amount of blood in the vessels near 
the surface of the body, driving the 
blood into the internal organs. In a 
toxic condition of the body this may be 
all that is necessary to produce a cold, 
but the foundation must have been 
laid previously. 

Please remember that improper eat¬ 
ing, especially overeating of concen¬ 
trated foods, is the greatest single fac¬ 
tor in producing colds. Instead of 
being caught through exposure or 
draughts, colds are usually taken at 
the table. We eat ourselves into colds.^ 
Those who keep themselves in good 
61 


CURING CATARRH ' 


physical condition can meet the ordi¬ 
nary vicissitudes of life and expose 
themselves to germs and they will 
not “catch cold.” Dampness and 
draughts will not have any evil effects 
on them. 

Eat properly and prevent colds. 

Symptoms of Colds 

The symptoms vary with the loca¬ 
tion of the cold, but it is not very im¬ 
portant to draw an exact picture of 
this trouble, for everybody knows what 
colds are. 

If the eyes are affected they water 
and are sensitive to light. If the 
frontal sinuses (cavities in the bones 
above the eye sockets) are affected 
there is headache. If the trouble is 
chiefly in the nose sneezing and head- 
62 


COUGHS AND COLDS 

ache are usually early symptoms. If 
there is no headache there is a feeling 
of oppression or dullness. The mu¬ 
cous membrane becomes red and swol¬ 
len. At first the discharge is watery 
and irritating, and later thick and even 
purulent in character. In severe cases 
the nasal ducts are closed and the tears 
flow down the cheeks. 

As the sense of taste is largely de¬ 
pendent on the sense of smell, foods 
lose much of their savor while colds in 
the head last. The sense of smell is 
much affected, sometimes being sup¬ 
pressed. In severe cases fever blisters 
(labial herpes) are common. The 
mucous membrane may be so swollen 
that nasal breathing is difficult or im¬ 
possible. 

In laryngeal colds there is cough. 

63 


CURING CATARRH ‘ 


Bronchial colds (colds on the chest) 
are accompanied with oppressive 
breathing, deep cough and expulsion 
of mucus. 

In colds of the throat the hearing is 
usually affected. The Eustachian 
tubes are more or less closed and this 
impairs the hearing. 

Severe colds are generally preceded 
by headache and soreness or pain in 
back and limbs. Chills are common, 
followed by fever, which is usually not 
high. The gastro-intestinal symptoms 
are usually those accompanying a mild 
fever, that is, partial suppression of 
the secretion of the glands which pro¬ 
duce digestive and lubricating fluids. 
That is why constipation is so common 
in this condition. 

Diagnosis presents no difficulty. 
The patient does his own diagnosing. 

64 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


The outcome is always favorable 
under proper treatment. However, if 
the treatment is incorrect, as it usu¬ 
ally is, the cold may last for weeks 
and even months, and it may be the 
starting-point of other ills which may 
destroy life. Those who have been 
subject to colds and catarrh are easily 
affected by pneumonia and tuberculo¬ 
sis after the colds have lasted long. 
The chronic state of inflammation 
weakens the mucous membrane of the 
respiratory tract, and then it is easy 
for disease to localize here. 

When a cold is neglected or poorly 
treated, the result is frequently chronic 
catarrh. Those who are subject to fre¬ 
quent colds often develop chronic ca¬ 
tarrh, chronic bronchitis or some other 
respiratory disease. 

65 


CUBING CATARRH ’ 


Treatment of Colds 

The usual treatment is medical, the 
idea being to suppress the outflow of 
mucus and to stop the cough. This 
is wrong and may result in great in¬ 
jury to the patient, or even in death. 
If the system is so full of poisons that 
they can not all escape through their 
natural channels, the proper way is to 
treat the body so that it ceases manu¬ 
facturing excessive amounts of poi¬ 
sons, and at the same time allow the 
body to rid itself of the impurities al¬ 
ready in the system. By suppressing 
the flow of mucus by means of reme¬ 
dies that constrict the mucous mem¬ 
brane we lock the toxins up within the 
system. If they are not allowed to 
escape they invariably cause trouble. 
A filthy body can not properly per- 
66 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


form its functions and if it is pre¬ 
vented from showing its abnormality 
in one way it will find another. 

The two favorite remedies at pres¬ 
ent are quinine and opium in some 
form. The quinine is the less ob¬ 
jectionable of the two, but it does 
not produce good results and it some¬ 
times injures the hearing. The opi¬ 
ates suppress the secretion not only of 
the mucous membrane of the respira¬ 
tory tract, but of the digestive tract as 
well. Result: The constipation, which 
is usually present, is made worse, and 
the impurities in the system are re¬ 
tained. Cathartics are usually given. 
The intestinal tract should be thor¬ 
oughly cleaned out, but this can not be 
done effectively while opiates are 
given. 

We have briefly touched upon the 
67 


CURING CATARRH, 

usual treatment, which is not good. 
Let us discuss the correct, natural 
treatment, which brings good results 
and which is not followed by complica¬ 
tions. 

The proper treatment is to cleanse 
the system. When a cold appears, give 
a laxative and wash out the colon with 
a warm water enema. Repeat until 
the alimentary canal is open and free 
from waste, but it is not necessary or 
advisable to use drastic cathartics. 
Any mild cathartic will do, such as cas¬ 
tor oil, milk of magnesia, citrate of 
magnesia, your favorite salts, mineral 
water, cascara sagrada, or other mild 
cathartics. 

In order to relieve the engorged mu¬ 
cous membrane and to make the skin 
active, the sufferer should take a pro¬ 
longed hot bath, using the water as 
68 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


hot as he can bear it. The bath may 
last from twenty minutes to an hour. 
During the bath, let the ventilation be 
good, and give all the water that is de¬ 
sired to drink, either warm or cold. 
Warm water will aid to establish per¬ 
spiration, and is therefore preferable. 
If there are signs of faintness, drink 
cold water and apply cloths wrung out 
of cold water to the forehead. After 
the bath wrap up well, preferably in 
woolen garments, until the perspira¬ 
tion ceases. A blanket makes a good 
wrap. When the perspiration stops, 
dry the body well, using considerable 
friction, or sponge off with cool water 
and dry the skin. Then remain in bed 
seven or eight hours. 

Such treatment, if used in the 
very beginning, will break up what 
threatens to be a severe and prolonged 
69 


CURING CATARRH ’ 


cold. The earlier it is applied the more 
effective it is. 

Those who like to take Turkish 
baths or prolonged steam baths or 
treatment in a hot-room, may do so. 
The object is in all cases to equalize 
the circulation, to bring much blood to 
the skin and to induce perspiration. 
Half-measures do no good. It is 
necessary to apply much heat and to 
remain in the heat long enough to pro¬ 
duce a free flow of perspiration. A 
thorough application of heat until the 
perspiration freely pours out will often 
stop an attack of pneumonia in the 
early stages, that is, within a few hours 
of the onset. 

Some prefer to apply hot greasy 
substances, such as lard or oil, to the 
chest. There is no objection to this. 
Strips of flannel may be wrung out 
70 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


of hot oil and then wrapped around 
the chest; apply dry covering over this 
to retain the heat. Be careful not to 
burn the patient. Hot water or hot 
air are not quite so dangerous as hot 
oily substances. The principle is to 
get the surface of the body warm and 
keep it that way long enough to open 
the pores and bring about free per¬ 
spiration. The manner of doing this 
is of minor importance. 

This treatment is very effective in 
mild cases of colds, but is usually not 
resorted to unless the cases are severe. 

In order to be sure of quick, depend¬ 
able results, no food should be taken 
until the fever and discomfort of the 
respiratory tract have subsided. 

To make this quick and sure treat¬ 
ment perfectly easy to understand, we 
shall tabulate it, and please remember 
71 


CURING CATARRH ‘ 


that instructions must be followed to 
the letter: 

1. —Do not neglect the cold, but as 
soon as you feel it coming on take 
enough of your favorite laxative to 
move the bowels freely. 

2. —Also take an injection (enema) 
of tepid water with a little Castile soap 
dissolved in it. 

3. —Take a bath hot enough and 
protracted enough to produce copious 
perspiration. If necessary, remain in 
the bath a full hour. 

4. —Before entering the bath, drink 
all the warm water you can and con¬ 
tinue to drink warm water while tak¬ 
ing the bath. 

5. —After the bath wrap up in 
woolens and remain wrapped up un¬ 
til the perspiration stops. Then either 
sponge the body off with cool water 

72 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


and dry off, or give the skin a thor¬ 
ough dry rubbing from neck to feet. 

6. —Go to bed and remain there 
from six to eight hours. Have plenty 
of fresh air, but no draughts. 

7. —Eat absolutely nothing until the 
cold is thrown off. You can have all 
the lemon juice you desire, or plain 
lemonade, but no sugar in it. There is 
to be no eating of any kind, liquid or 
solid; take nothing into the stomach 
except water and, if desired, lemon 
juice. (I hope the reader will under¬ 
stand that I mean nothing hut water J 
with or without the addition of lemon 
juice.) 

8. —Repeat the cathartic and the 
warm water injection if necessary to 
get a bowel movement. This is im¬ 
portant. 

If this kind of treatment is insti- 
73 


CURING CATARRH 3 


tuted just as soon as the cold appears 
it will rout the cold within twenty-four 
hours in nearly every case. But there 
is to be no feeding. Those who allow 
the cold to get a good hold can break 
it up in the same way, but the longer it 
is neglected, the more of this kind of 
treatment is necessary. 

This may be looked upon as a severe 
plan, and perhaps it is, but when car¬ 
ried out in the beginning it is always 
successful. What is best, to undertake 
this kind of treatment and recover 
within twenty-four hours, or at the 
most within two or three days, or act 
according to the popular plan so that 
the cold may last for weeks or months ? 
You can do as you please. 

Those who carry out this plan will 
not eat anything until the cold is gone. 
It seldom requires as long as three 
74 


COUGHS AND COLDS 

days to overcome a cold if it is taken 
in the beginning and these instruc¬ 
tions are carried out to the letter. It 
is a cleansing treatment, for it cleans 
the bowels, the skin and the respira¬ 
tory tract, and in this way it also cleans 
the blood. 

I know that there are many repe¬ 
titions in these instructions, but if the 
reader had as much experience with 
the sick as the writer has, no explana¬ 
tions would be deemed necessary. In¬ 
stead of apologizing, I shall repeat 
once more in tabloid form: 

The best way to cure a cold is to take 
it in the beginning, produce free per¬ 
spiration, thoroughly clean out the di¬ 
gestive tract, give all the water desired 
and a little more, but eat nothing until 
the cold has disappeared. 

This information is worth many 
75 


CUEING CATARRH ‘ 


times the price of this book, and will 
save thousands of lives every year if 
put into practice. 

When the cold is gone, begin to eat 
again, hut do not go back to the old 
habits that produced the colds. 

Some like to have their colds longer. 
They can get fairly good results by 
keeping the bowels clean and living on 
a very simple diet, and we shall outline 
a few diets that will be found effective: 

1. —Whole wheat toast with butter 
and glass of milk three times a day. 

2. —Juicy fruit three times a day. 

3. —Juicy fruit two times a day, and 
a third meal of milk with or without 
toast. Buttermilk may be used any 
time instead of milk. 

4. —Juicy fruit once a day; cooked 
succulent vegetables and raw salad 

76 


COUGHS AND COLDS 

vegetables for the second meal; third 
meal, toast and milk. 

But those who eat when they are 
suffering from a cold are not treating 
themselves right. It is not correct 
conduct. The right way is to stop eat¬ 
ing and keep the bowels clean until the 
cold vanishes. (This is more repeti¬ 
tion.) 

When the cold is gone, begin to eat 
in a balanced way. Do better than 
you did previously and there will 
he no severe colds. Do the right 
thing by your body and there will be 
no colds whatever. It is impossible 
to retain good health if one par¬ 
takes of too much food, or lives almost 
exclusively on the concentrated staple 
foods. And this is especially true of 
those who do indoor work. Those 
who are in the habit of catching cold 
77 


CURING CATARRH 


may be sure that their mode of living 
is wrong, otherwise they would not 
have enough poisons in their bodies to 
produce inflammation of the mucous 
membranes with an excessive flow of 
mucus. 


Prevention of Colds 

Colds are not necessary. Those 
who are determined not to have them 
can be without them. Correct knowl¬ 
edge and will power are the two in¬ 
gredients necessary to keep colds 
away. You will have to supply your 
own will power. I can supply the 
knowledge, and then in the small-boy 
vernacular you can take it or leave it. 

Colds are practically unknown to 
those who live the simple life in the 
open. It is a disease of civilization to 
suffer with colds. Colds mean that 
78 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


our habits of living are so abnormal 
and unnatural that we must return to 
more natural living methods in order 
to enjoy good health. Let us read 
Nature’s book, and learn the few sim¬ 
ple means that will prevent colds, as 
well as other diseases. 

1.—In a state of nature man had to 
gain his bread by the sweat of his brow. 
This means that he had to undergo a 
great deal of muscular activity. He 
not only had to sharpen his wits to cap¬ 
ture his food, a large part of which ran 
about the plains and forests on four 
legs, but he had to exercise enough to 
keep his body supple in order to keep 
from starving. With creaky joints 
came slowness, and with slowness came 
lack of food, and then privation and 
starvation. In ye good days of yore 
the weak and decrepit were often ah 
79 


CUEING CATARRH , 

lowed to die because they had served 
their purpose. 

With such training in the infancy of 
the race, our bodies have attained such 
forms and functions that we must be 
physically active to remain physically 
well. 

So the first point in the prevention 
of cold—and other ills—is to exercise. 
Those who live in the cities should take 
five minutes or more of vigorous exer¬ 
cise night and morning, and besides 
walk two or three miles in the open 
every day. Those who work with 
their hands should take corrective ex¬ 
ercises to keep their bodies in good 
condition. Work and exercise are two 
different things. 

2.—As we have already discovered, 
primitive man had to exercise or 
starve. In exercising he got deep 
80 


COUGHS AND COLDS 

draughts of pure air. In those days 
the female of the species did not en¬ 
cumber her chest and waist and hips 
with armor (corsets) and she could 
breathe as well as her lord and master. 
Deep breathing was the mode in those 
days, for those short of breath could 
not prey upon the lower animals, and 
that meant starvation. 

The second point in the prevention 
of colds—and other ills—is to breathe 
deeply of fresh air. Get as good air 
as possible. At night leave the win¬ 
dows wide open and get the splendid 
night air which helps to bring to the 
individual vigor and a clear head in 
the morning. Those who do office 
work should take a dozen or more slow, 
deep breaths morning, noon and night 
when in the fresh air. If the chest 
expansion is two inches, increase it to 
81 


CURING CATARRH ’ 


three; when it becomes three inches, 
increase it to four. Have at least four 
or five inches of chest expansion before 
you are satisfied, and then breathe 
deeply. 

3.—In the good old days when the 
race was young, the white race seems 
to have been quite ignorant of tea and 
coffee. Water seems to have been the 
beverage. It is true that they brewed 
beer and turned grapes into wine even 
in history’s dawn, but read the Good 
Book and learn how one of the early 
patriarchs disgraced himself, and what 
a misfortune befell his son and the 
sons of this son, through imbibing 
the fermented fruit of the vine. 

The third important point is that 
one’s drink should be water. At least 
it should not be a fluid containing 
82 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


drugs, as do tea, coffee and alcoholic 
drinks. 

4.—I do not pretend to have delved 
deeply into the psychology (mode of 
thinking) of our savage ancestors. If 
we could transplant a remote ancestor 
into the present century, I am afraid 
that most of us would call him a brute 
and try hard to pluck him from the 
family tree. It is no longer the mode 
to beat one’s beloved into submission 
and unconsciousness and drag her to 
the new home. It is not being done 
openly in our best families. Research¬ 
ers tell us that this was proper in the 
days of old. 

So we are compelled to improve on 
the ancients in this respect. The ten¬ 
sion of civilization is so high that those 
who desire the best of health have to 
keep the mind well balanced. The 
83 


CURING CATARRH ’ 


high spirits (bad temper) so fashion¬ 
able in the novels of the writers who 
have been gathered to their fathers 
will not do now. Those who wish the 
best of health have to avoid violent 
temper and cultivate mental poise and 
equanimity. Yes, this is a part of pre¬ 
venting colds and avoiding other ills. 
An unbalanced mind helps to make 
the body sick. 

5.—In the good old days it was 
rather difficult to get enough clothing. 
The men wore very little and the ladies 
could promenade with even lower cut 
waists and shorter skirts than the styles 
of recent years allow without being 
thought immodest. To-day we protect 
our skin with clothing, and the con¬ 
sequence is that it becomes weak and 
does not properly perform its func¬ 
tions. In the olden days the skin pro- 
84 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


tected the body. The sun and the rain 
and the cold beat upon it and made it 
strong and stimulated it to do its 
work. The excretory function of the 
skin is the same to-day as of yore. 
But when the skin is pampered and 
protected it does not function as it 
should. It becomes lazy and a part 
of the waste is retained in the blood. 

The remedy is to dress sensibly. 
Wear no woolens next to the skin. 
Do not put on so many clothes that the 
skin stays moist and hot at all times. 
And give the skin a thorough dry rub¬ 
bing with something coarse (coarse 
towel or flesh brush, for instance) each 
day. 

6.—The most important part of the 
treatment in overcoming the habit of 
taking cold is to eat correctly. If 
space permitted, an entire manual of 
85 


CURING CATARRH , 


food preparation would form a part 
of this book. This is not practicable, 
so a few important hints regarding 
food and eating are here given and the 
reader is requested to study with great 
care the last two chapters of this 
book. 

It is hard to overemphasize the im¬ 
portance of correct preparation and 
thorough mastication of food. 

Eat slowly and masticate everything 
thoroughly. Overcome the bad habit 
of gulping down foods. 

Eat in moderation. Always stop 
eating before there is a sense of satia¬ 
tion and discomfort. 

Eat more of fresh fruits and fresh 
vegetables than has been your custom. 

Eat less of white flour and white 
sugar than you have been in the habit 
of consuming. 


86 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


Instead of using so much white 
flour, use whole wheat flour and prod¬ 
ucts made of corn and rye. 

Instead of using so much white 
sugar, use brown sugar, honey, maple 
sugar, or the sweet fruits—raisins, 
figs, dates, sweet prunes and ripe 
bananas. 

Instead of living on pickled and 
preserved foods, learn to live on fresh 
foods. 

Under ordinary circumstances meat 
is to be eaten only once a day. Eat¬ 
ing meat several times a day will 
surely produce disease, especially in 
those who do light work. 

Foods should be plainly cooked, and 
should not be spoiled with such season¬ 
ing as pepper, mustard and vinegar. 
Nor should foods be messed up with 
milk and flour gravies (usually called 
87 


CURING CATARRH, 

cream gravies) and the brown flour 
gravies. 

The general rule should be to eat 
plain foods. Desserts should be the 
exception, not the rule. 

Eat something raw every day. Raw 
fruits and raw salad vegetables are the 
best for this purpose. Nearly all 
fruits may be eaten raw. Some of 
the raw vegetables are rather difficult 
to digest, but the majority will be able 
to eat the following vegetables un¬ 
cooked: Cabbage, lettuce, celery, cu¬ 
cumbers, radishes, tomatoes, endive, 
romaine and mild onions. 

The inhabitants of cities as a rule 
need only one hearty meal a day, with 
one or two lunches. Those who do 
light work and eat two or three hearty 
meals daily are sure to make them¬ 
selves ill. 


88 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


Use only a few different kinds of 
food in a meal. It is unnatural to mix 
and mess up a great variety of foods 
for one meal. The digestive organs 
object to it, and in the end rebel, and 
that means sickness. Most of the time 
do not eat more than four varieties of 
food at a meal. If you are satisfied 
with one or two kinds of food for each 
meal, so much the better. If you have 
one kind of protein in a meal, that is 
all the albuminous food you need. If 
you have one kind of starch in a meal, 
that is sufficient variety of starch. If 
you don’t know what proteins and 
starches are, turn to food classification 
at the end of this book. 

Let us further condense the formula 
for preventing colds: 

1. —Take daily exercise. 

2. —Breathe deeply. 

89 


CURING CATARRH 


3. —Drink what water the body 
needs and avoid drug drinks. 

4. —Get into a balanced state of 
mind. 

5. —Eat properly. 

That seems a brief way to put it, but 
let us condense the formula for pre¬ 
venting colds still further. You 
ought to be able to remember two 
words: 

Live right . 

Then you will have no colds nor any 
other kinds of ills. 


PART II 


Chronic Catarrh 

I am purposely repeating some of 
the facts that have been given under 
colds, but not all of the important 
facts. Colds and chronic catarrh are 
really one and the same thing. Colds 
generally last but a short time, while 
chronic catarrh usually endures for 
years and sometimes as long as life 
lasts. But outside of the time element 
colds and chronic catarrh are the same. 
Please read the part dealing with colds, 
for it will help you to understand what 
is written in the pages about chronic 
catarrh. The repetitions made are 
important. 

It is not necessary to repeat the 

91 


CURING CATARRH , 


causes of catarrh, for they are the same 
as the causes of colds, and you can 
turn to the pages regarding colds and 
reread what is there written. 

Chronic catarrh is one of the most 
common and troublesome of human 
ills. It is as wide-spread as civiliza¬ 
tion. Though it does not in itself 
cause many deaths, that is, though 
very few death certificates will give 
chronic catarrh as the cause of death, 
chronic catarrh with constipation lay 
the foundation for more deaths than 
any other physical troubles. These 
two conditions cause such a deteriora¬ 
tion of the system that other diseases 
are built upon them, and then these 
ultimate diseases are given as the 
causes of death. 

Let us summarize the causes of most 
diseases: 


92 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


1. —The individual lives wrong, and 
more especially eats improperly. 

2. —The incorrect eating, aided by 
other bad habits, produces indigestion, 
which may not cause any special in¬ 
convenience, but manifests itself to the 
keen eye in such symptoms as furred 
or coated tongue, canker, “cold sores,” 
bad complexion, pimples, nervousness, 
and unnatural color of the white of 
the eyeball. 

3. —After the digestion has been 
perverted, the blood-stream becomes 
impure and the body very frequently 
turns too acid (sour). 

4. —Then catarrh and constipation 
generally appear upon the scene. 

5. —In this condition, from which 
at least one-half of our population suf¬ 
fers, it is possible to take on any kind 
of disease going. Those who keep 

93 


CURING CATARRH, 


their blood-stream sweet and clean, 
and live so as to avoid constipation, 
will not have catarrh or any other dis¬ 
ease. 

Please remember that catarrh is not 
due to the climate; it is not due to 
germs; but it is due to wrong living, 
and more especially to incorrect eat¬ 
ing. Those who eat properly can not 
develop a typical case of chronic ca¬ 
tarrh. 

Although catarrh is a digestive and 
J blood disease, it manifests in the mu¬ 
cous membranes. It is the cause of 
thousands of cases of deafness. Ca¬ 
tarrhal deafness is always curable if 
taken in hand and properly treated be¬ 
fore structural changes have occurred 
in the ears. But after the structural 
changes have taken place the hearing 
will not return. It is not necessary 
94 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


to give any local ear treatments in the 
curable cases, but it is necessary to feed 
the patient right and teach him to live 
right otherwise. 

Catarrh may localize in any part of 
the mucous membrane of the body. I 
shall mention a few of the medical 
names given to chronic catarrh in vari¬ 
ous parts of the body, without defining 
them. Really, they are not of great 
importance, and you need not look 
them up unless you are curious: 
Blepharitis, otitis, rhinitis, bronchitis, 
gastritis, enteritis, colitis, proctitis and 
cystitis. Remember that catarrh, no 
matter where it occurs, is the same 
thing and that these fancy names do 
not matter. 

In chronic catarrh the mucous mem¬ 
brane may either become thickened or 
it may be very thin (atrophied). It 
95 


CURING CATARRH, 


usually becomes engorged and swollen 
in the early stages of the process, and 
then excessive amounts of fibrous tis¬ 
sue are deposited. This fibrous tis¬ 
sue has a tendency to contract, and if 
the catarrh is very bad the contraction 
may continue until the mucous mem¬ 
brane becomes too thin and pale, indi¬ 
cating poor circulation. 

In the beginning the catarrh is of 
the moist variety. Great quantities 
of mucus are poured out. This shows 
that the blood is surcharged with im¬ 
purities which escape by way of the 
mucous membrane. The mucus is an 
albuminous fluid and when it is dis¬ 
charged as catarrhal waste it weakens 
the body. 

The catarrh may turn into the dry 
variety, and then crusts of dried mucus 
form in the nose or other parts lined 
96 


COUGHS AND COLDS 

with mucous membrane. Most of the 
children who have the disgusting habit 
of picking their nose are suffering 
from catarrh, and the mucous mem¬ 
brane has degenerated so that it is un¬ 
able to keep itself clean. Those who 
superintend the feeding of the chil¬ 
dren are always to blame, for if the 
young people are properly fed they 
will not develop catarrh. 

If catarrh is allowed to remain long 
the mucous membrane is forced into 
degeneration. It can not be over¬ 
worked without being weakened. A 
weakened mucous membrane becomes 
an ideal site for many different kinds 
of diseases, a few of which we shall 
name: Tuberculosis, ulcerated stom¬ 
ach, cancer of the stomach, gall-stones, 
ulcers of the intestines, pneumonia, 
97 


CURING CATARRH ‘ 


kidney stones, stone in the bladder, 
bladder ulcers and many other ills. 

Catarrh is one of the most prolific 
causes of consumption, and as con¬ 
sumption probably kills more than fif¬ 
teen out of every hundred individuals 
it will be seen how necessary it is to 
prevent and cure catarrh. 

Many of the disturbances of the 
stomach, liver and intestines are of a 
catarrhal nature. 

Most of the ills of the nose, throat 
and lungs are also catarrhal. 

The eyes and ears also suffer much 
from catarrh. 

Knowing these facts, it seems to me 
that everybody who has catarrh would 
want to get rid of the nuisance, for so 
long as it remains it threatens to bring 
disease upon us. Those who suffer 
from catarrh easily fall victims to va- 
98 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


rious acute ills, such as bronchitis, 
pneumonia, typhoid fever and appen¬ 
dicitis, to mention but a few. 

And it is easy to rid the body of ca¬ 
tarrh. It is surprisingly easy in the 
young. 

The average young individual can 
get rid of catarrh in a few weeks or a 
few months. That is, all the symp¬ 
toms will disappear in a short time. 
But it requires considerable time to 
build up the system so that the catarrh 
is really cured. A true cure is not 
accomplished until the blood-stream is 
so clean that there is no need of forc¬ 
ing large amounts of poisons out 
through the mucous membrane. I have 
seen all the symptoms of chronic ca¬ 
tarrh of more than twenty years’ 
standing disappear in less than two 
weeks. But the individuals are not 


99 


CURING CATARRH, 


well as soon as the symptoms disap¬ 
pear. The recovery is complete when 
eveiy part of the body becomes sweet 
and clean, which requires a few months 
even in young individuals. 

After a person has had catarrh for 
forty, fifty or more years it is rather 
tedious to conquer the condition, but 
it can be done. Catarrh has then be¬ 
come an established habit, and habits 
are hard to break. The body clings to 
its old habits. Those in advanced 
years who wish to overcome catarrh 
can do so by living as they should. 
Catarrh is always curable until it has 
caused extensive degeneration of the 
physical structures. If extensive 
structural degeneration has occurred, 
there will not be complete regenera¬ 
tion, though improvement and partial 
regeneration often take place. The 
100 


COUGHS AND COLDS 

reason why some cases of catarrhal 
deafness can not recover is that struc¬ 
tural changes have occurred in the 
ears. 

Degeneration means that high grade 
physical structures have been replaced 
by low grade structures, and the gen¬ 
eral rule in the human body is that low 
grade structures can not be replaced 
by high grade structures. That is 
why a fatty heart can not again become 
as strong as it was originally; that is 
why a degenerated nerve can not fully 
regain tone; that is why a large scar 
will always be a scar; that is why a 
fibrous liver can not again become a 
normal gland; and that is why a struc¬ 
turally degenerated mucous membrane 
will not return to normal. 

Here is the greatest rule of curabil¬ 
ity which applies to catarrh and all 
101 


CURING CATARRH , 


other ills: If the body functions are 
deranged, cure is probable under cor¬ 
rect treatment; but if the body struc¬ 
ture is degenerated, a complete cure 
is very improbable. 

But most cases of chronic catarrh 
are curable, and nearly every case can 
be helped, even if there is structural 
degeneration. 

Medicines are a delusion and a 
snare. They never have cured catarrh 
and they never will. The market 
boasts of many catarrh cures. I have 
not given these cures special attention 
for a few years, but I know that 
until the Harrison law was passed the 
catarrh cures (so-called) often con¬ 
tained habit-forming drugs. One can 
suppress secretions with cocain, mor- 
phin, atropin and other medical 
agents, but it is folly to do so. Such 
102 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


treatment may produce a craving for 
drugs too strong for the victim to con¬ 
trol. It may also produce fatal dis¬ 
eases through suppressing the secre¬ 
tions and excretions of the body. The 
excessive flow of mucus in catarrh is 
not the disease; it is only the symp¬ 
tom pointing to the fact that the blood 
is unclean. Think of smearing a little 
salve on the mucous membrane, or 
spraying the mucous membrane, and 
calling it curing! Why fool with the 
symptoms, when the proper thing to 
do is to go to the root of the trouble, 
remove the cause or causes and thus 
produce a cure ? 

And why spend your good money 
on medicines under the belief that they 
will cure catarrh, when they can’t pos¬ 
sibly do so? There are drugs that 
103 


CURING CATARRH , 


will give relief, but relief and cure are 
very, very different. 

There is only one sure cure for ca¬ 
tarrh, and that is right living; but let 
us give a little attention to relief meas¬ 
ures. 

Relieving Catarrh 
For catarrh of the eyes, gently wash 
the lids with clean water or with water 
containing a small amount of boracic 
acid. Use no strong solutions, for 
they may injure the mucous mem¬ 
brane. In bad cases guard the eyes 
against strong light. 

For nasal catarrh, especially the 
kind forming hard crusts, use an oily 
spray in an atomizer; or grease the 
nose with sterile white vaseline; or use 
a little camphor ice for the purpose of 
greasing the nose. Any kind of anti¬ 
septic wash that is so mild that it does 
104 


COUGHS AND COLDS 

not irritate the mucous membrane may 
be used. Some sniff salt solution. 
This does clear the nose, but if it 
is used too often and very strong it 
has a tendency to harden and dry up 
the mucous membrane, which is ex¬ 
actly what we do not wish to happen. 
A weak solution of baking soda in 
water is all right for a nasal wash. 

For catarrhal deafness of short du¬ 
ration you may try a cold pack on the 
neck. Dip a cloth in cold water; 
squeeze the water out so that the cloth 
does not drip; place it on the neck 
and over it put dry flannel and let it 
stay for thirty or forty minutes. Re¬ 
new as often as you please. It may 
help to clear the throat, and relieve 
the engorgement of the Eustachian 
tubes, and then the hearing will im¬ 
prove. 


105 


CURING CATARRH , 


For catarrh of the throat take the 
juice of one-half of a lemon in water 
every morning. Do not put sugar 
into this. Those who have catarrh of 
the nose and throat should gargle 
and clean their mouth well every 
morning. 

Lemon juice and water are also 
good in cases of catarrh of the liver. 

But these are not curative measures. 
They are simply measures of cleanli¬ 
ness applied to the symptoms. What 
every one should seek is a cure, and 
that consists in correct living. 

Drugs may be used to relieve. It 
is best not to take them, for they do 
not cure, and they may do harm. 

Curing Chronic Catarrh 

Nearly every one who has catarrh 
can get permanently well. It takes 
106 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


determination and stick-to-it-iveness, 
but the cure is worth the effort, and a 
great deal more. Those who get rid of 
catarrh in the right way will build for 
themselves such robust health that they 
will be able to go through life without 
any disease. Surely it is worth while 
to change a few habits in order to gain 
dependable, permanent health. 

Most of those who suffer from ca¬ 
tarrh are constipated. Depending 
upon how long the constipation has 
lasted, this abnormal condition can be 
overcome in a fairly reasonable time. 
The cure is the same as the cure of any 
other disease—to live as you should. 
A few bending exercises, deep breath¬ 
ing, kneading the abdomen and proper 
eating are the most important meas¬ 
ures employed in conquering consti¬ 
pation. The eating must have special 
107 


CURING CATARRH , 


attention. To overcome constipation 
it is necessary to eat the fresh natural 
foods so that the blood will become 
purified and the entire physical struc¬ 
ture will be toned up. Fresh fruits 
and fresh vegetables should form a 
large part of the diet and the sufferer 
should reduce the intake of white flour 
and white sugar products, substituting 
the natural sugars found in such foods 
as honey, raisins, figs and dates, and 
the natural grain products such as 
whole wheat flour, rye flour, corn meal 
and other ground or crushed or shred¬ 
ded or puffed grain foods that have 
not been robbed of their valuable min¬ 
eral salts. The use of white flour 
products and white sugar help to pro¬ 
duce constipation. They are too re¬ 
fined. The natural foods help to keep 
the bowels in normal condition. 


108 


COUGHS AND COLDS 

If the constipation is severe it will 
be necessary to use injections or mild 
cathartics. They do not cure, but they 
help to keep the bowels clean, and one 
of the important measures in curing 
catarrh is to keep the bowels clean. 

The exercise, breathing, drinking 
and thinking points discussed in the 
part of this book dealing with colds 
apply to chronic catarrh as well. Be¬ 
cause the blood is unclean it is impor¬ 
tant to give the skin good care, rub¬ 
bing it daily. This helps the skin to 
remain active, and an active skin helps 
to remove much waste from the blood¬ 
stream. 

Eating in Chronic Catarrh 

At least nine-tenths of the causes of 
chronic catarrh are dietetic errors. 
Hence the most important part of the 
109 


CURING CATARRH 


treatment is to learn how to eat prop¬ 
erly. The average sufferer eats any¬ 
thing and everything in all kinds of 
combinations. He has no idea about 
correct combining of foods. He 
thinks that he needs a great deal of 
nourishing food and he lives up to his 
belief, and builds disease. His suf¬ 
fering is self-imposed martyrdom. 
Lack of knowledge is back of it, but 
Nature also says that “Ignorance of 
the law excuses no one.” She doles 
out disease equally to those who disre¬ 
gard her laws through ignorance and 
to those who disregard them through 
weakness or perversity. 

Because the eating is so important 
in catarrh I shall give a number of 
general rules, and then some menus, 
showing how those afflicted with 
chronic catarrh should eat. 


110 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


1. —Thoroughly masticate all food, 
and eat slowly. This applies not only 
in chronic catarrh, but in every other 
chronic disease. It applies not only 
in disease, but in health. The first 
and most important rule regarding 
eating is: Thoroughly masticate all 
foods, and eat slowly. 

2. —Be moderate in eating. This 
is almost as important as the first rule. 
Catarrh is based on wrong eating, and 
overeating is one of our gravest die¬ 
tetic sins. Overeating causes indiges¬ 
tion; indigestion produces an excess 
of internal gases, too much acidity and 
poisons due to decomposition of foods 
in the digestive tract. Some of these 
products of indigestion are absorbed 
into the blood, which becomes unclean 
and may become acid in reaction. The 
blood circulates to all parts of the 

111 


CURING CATARRH , 


body, spreading the disease to every 
cell. When the blood and all the 
other tissues of the body become un¬ 
clean some disease will appear, and 
often this takes the form of catarrh. 

Be moderate in eating. 

“What is moderation in eating?” 
you may ask. 

Moderation in eating is to partake 
of enough food so that the body is well 
nourished but has no food left over 
with which to build disease. Those 
who eat too much will have one or more 
of the following symptoms: Muddy 
complexion, yellowish or grayish skin, 
pimples or blotches, boils, itching of 
the skin, a tinge of green or yellow in 
the white of the eyeball, frequent colds 
or catarrh, coated or pale tongue, can¬ 
ker, sour or acid stomach, gas in the 
stomach or bowels, drowsy feeling 
112 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


after some of the meals, that tired feel¬ 
ing, a dull feeling upon arising in the 
morning, bad taste in the mouth in the 
morning, distaste of water in the 
morning, a heavy, dull feeling in the 
morning, oppression of head or head¬ 
aches. These are symptoms of a sys¬ 
tem cloyed and clogged with food. 
Some of these symptoms, but not all, 
are present in every individual who 
overeats. Obesity (fatness) is always 
a symptom of overeating. 

Those who eat in moderation will 
not have these symptoms. They will 
look well and they will feel well. 
They will arise in the morning able to 
appreciate and enjoy the beauties of 
nature, and will be ready for a day’s 
work. They will have no aches and 
pains and will not have any spite to 
take out on their associates due to a 


113 


CURING CATARRH , 


deranged liver. Those who eat as 
they should will be bright and clean 
both physically and mentally. 

Be moderate in eating. 

3. —Prepare your foods according 
to directions in chapters 8, 9 and 10 
of “Eating for Health and Effi¬ 
ciency.” 

4. —Eat plenty of fresh foods, and 
avoid as much as possible pickled, pre¬ 
served and cured foods. When chem¬ 
icals are used for preserving foods 
(common table salt is a chemical) the 
health values of these foods are low¬ 
ered. Fresh foods are best. It is 
always possible to have fresh fruits 
and vegetables. In summer they are 
plentiful, and many fruits and vege¬ 
tables keep well in winter. It only 
requires a little planning to have 
apples, oranges, bananas, raisins, figs, 

114 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


dates, cabbage, carrots, turnips, beets 
and parsnips all winter. This is but 
a partial list. In addition one can 
have foods canned in plain water, and 
the vegetables canned in this way are 
very good. Also, one can obtain 
fruits that have been dried without the 
use of chemicals and these are very 
good. 

5.—Have the foods as natural as 
possible. Try to avoid such impover¬ 
ished foods as refined white sugar, pat¬ 
ent white flour, polished rice and cured 
meats and preserved fruits. Use the 
brown flour, brown rice, brown sugar 
and honey and maple sugar and the 
sweet fruits, fresh meats, fresh fruits, 
fresh vegetables. If possible use milk 
that has not been pasteurized or 
boiled. The ordinary bacteria in milk 
do no harm. Have your milk pro- 


115 


CURING CATARRH, 


duced in a cleanly manner, and when 
you take milk, have your share of live 
bacteria. If you want your germs 
dead, heat the milk, but please re¬ 
member that heated milk is inferior to 
the uncooked milk from the health 
standpoint. The only excuse for pas¬ 
teurizing or boiling the milk supplied 
to the public is that the milk is dirty. 
Heating does not remove the dirt. 
Children who are given an exclusive 
diet of cooked milk do not thrive. 

6.—Eat moderately of cream, milk 
and cheese. These are good foods, 
but those who suffer from catarrh gen¬ 
erally find that a large intake of them 
will aggravate the trouble. Adult 
sufferers from catarrh, living on a 
mixed diet, should not take milk or 
cheese more than once a day. If the 
116 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


color of the eyeball is bad, they should 
avoid cream until the eyes clear up. 

7. —Eat some raw fruit or some raw 
vegetables every day. The reason for 
this is that the raw fruits and the raw 
vegetables supply the salts of iron, cal¬ 
cium, potash, soda, chlorine, sulphur, 
phosphorus and other necessary ele¬ 
ments in the form that the body needs 
them. Raw fruits and raw vegetables 
are cleansing and they help to keep the 
body in an alkaline condition, which is 
necessary for the sake of the health. 
They help to keep the foods from go¬ 
ing into abnormal fermentation, and 
in this way aid in keeping the system 
sweet. 

8. —Eat of flesh foods but once a 
day, and the flesh foods are all kinds 
of meats and fish. It used to be be¬ 
lieved that a human being needs much 

117 


CUEING CATARRH, 


meat to build strength. We now 
know that much meat eating builds 
weakness and breeds disease. It used 
to be believed that manual laborers 
should have meat three times a day. 
We now know that a manual laborer 
needs no more meat than an office 
worker, but the laborer needs more 
fats and starches and sugars. Protein 
is necessary for physical existence, but 
an excessive amount of protein causes 
quicker degeneration than any other 
food. For a list of proteins see food 
classification in the back of this book. 

9.—Make it a general rule to com¬ 
bine simply. The average dinner in 
our land is an insult to the stomach. 
It contains bread, butter, meat, flour 
gravy, potatoes, one or two vegetables 
cooked with thickened gravy, some 
kind of salad, and a dessert, and this 
118 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


is topped off with coffee. No one 
needs such great variety of food, and 
I have mentioned only a so-called sim¬ 
ple dinner. Nowhere in Nature can 
we find an excuse for such mixing, un¬ 
less we take a tip from the hog. But 
don’t blame the hog, for man has 
spoiled him. In a natural state the 
hog leads the simple life and is a 
cleanly brute. 

A good dinner can be made of four 
or five articles of food. Most meals 
should be limited to four or less kinds 
of food. Those who are satisfied to 
eat one or two or three kinds of food 
at a meal do well by themselves. Eat¬ 
ing a great variety at each meal leads 
to overeating, and overeating causes 
physical degeneration. 

10.—Be regular about eating. Many 
live on two meals a day, and do nicely 
119 


CURING CATARRH , 


on the two-meal a day plan. No adult 
should eat more than three tiims a 
day. Lunching is a bad habit. Most 
individuals eat too much at the three 
meals, and to take lunches between 
meals is adding insult to injury. Eat 
three meals a day, if that is your eat¬ 
ing plan, and between meals take noth-’ 
ing but water. This is a positive rule 
that must be observed. 

11. —It is best to take the heaviest 
meal after the hard work of the day is 
over. Hard labor and digestion can 
not take place in the body at the same 
time. Thinking is labor as well as 
physical activity. One should never 
eat when greatly upset mentally. 

12. —Those who are in great hurry 
to rid the system of catarrh can usually 
accomplish it by going on a fast. 
Sometimes a long fast fails to accom- 

120 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


plish the desired results because the 
body is too impregnated with the ca¬ 
tarrhal poisons to clear up in three or 
four weeks of fasting. Fasts are not 
necessary in this condition, but they 
are a short cut. They almost invaria¬ 
bly succeed in individuals below the 
age of thirty. For further informa¬ 
tion in regard to foods see “Cooking 
Hints” in the back of the book. 

The route that most persons ought 
to choose is the road of hygiene and 
correct feeding. I shall give menus 
for the guidance of those who like to 
have some coaching in selecting meals. 
I do not say that these are the only 
kinds of meals that will bring good 
results. I say that any kind of sim¬ 
ple, moderate eating will bring good 
results, if the selection, preparation 
and combination of food are reasona- 
121 


CURING CATARRH , 


bly good. In making menus I aim 
to use the foods that most people can* 
obtain without difficulty. 

The succulent vegetables should 
have an important place in the menus 
of sufferers from catarrh. These 
foods may be eaten freely. 

The menus below are for the aver¬ 
age individual who works in modera¬ 
tion. The manual laborer will need 
more starchy food, which he can obtain 
by omitting some of the fruit meals 
and taking whole wheat products or 
other starches instead. 

In making up menus I mention 
everything that should be eaten. Do 
not add bread and potatoes to any 
meals when bread and potatoes are not 
mentioned. You can dress the foods 
according to directions given in chap- 
122 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


ters 8, 9 and 10 of “Eating for Health 
and Efficiency.” 


Breakfast 

Baked apples or raw apples. 
Raisins, raw, steamed or stewed. 
Glass of milk. 


Lunch 

Shredded wheat biscuit, triscuit, or 
whole wheat toast with butter. 

Dish of green peas or string beans. 
Summer squash or beets. 

Celery or sliced cucumbers, if con¬ 
venient. 


Dinner 

Fresh fish or fresh eggs. 

Cooked cabbage or Brussels sprouts. 
Baked potatoes. 

Cabbage slaw or a plate of lettuce. 


123 


CURING CATARRH\ 


Breakfast 

Oatmeal well cooked and well mas¬ 
ticated, with either butter or a glass of 
milk. (No sugar.) 

Figs or dates. 


Lunch 

Baked Hubbard squash or baked 
potatoes with butter. 

Kale or spinach. 

Asparagus or celery root. 

Lettuce. 


Dinner 

Roast beef or mutton chops. 
Carrots or turnips. 

Parsnips or beets. 

A dish of berries or some kind of 
raw fruit. 


124 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


Breakfast 

Berries or other fresh fruit. 
Bananas. 

Raisins or figs. 


Lunch 

Dish of custard. 

Whole wheat biscuits or whole 
wheat muffins with butter. 

Cooked chard or cabbage. 


Dinner 

Nut meats or fresh meat. 

Fresh green peas or young lima 
beans (not the ripe ones). 

Spinach or beet greens. 

Green vegetable salad. 

Piece of apple pie. 


125 


CURING CATARRH , 


Breakfast 

Corn bread, butter, with or without 
honey. 

Strip or two of crisp bacon. 

Glass of milk or buttermilk. 


Lunch 

Vegetable soup. 

Graham crackers or whole wheat 
bread with butter. 

Rutabagas or kohl-rabi. 

Ripe olives. 


Dinner 

Fresh fish or fresh eggs. 

Baked potato or potato boiled in 
the jacket. 

String beans or beets. 

A salad of lettuce or endive with cel¬ 
ery or cucumbers. 


126 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


Breakfast 

Pears or other fresh fruits. 

Ripe raw bananas, or baked ba¬ 
nanas. 

Cottage cheese or other mild cheese. 


Lunch 

Shredded wheat biscuits or stale rye 
bread with butter. 

Okra or egg plant. 

Corn on the cob or string beans. 


. Dinner 

Macaroni and cheese. 

Dandelion greens or other boiled 
greens. 

Cabbage or cauliflower. 

Green vegetable salad. 


127 


CURING CATARRH ’ 


Breakfast 

Baked apples or apples cooked with 
figs or dates. 

Raisins and nuts. 

Dish of berries or one raw fruit. 


Lunch 

Baked beans or rice and cheese 
(made like macaroni and cheese). 
Kale or spinach. 

Salad of lettuce and celery, or of 
lettuce and cucumbers. 


Dinner 

Vegetable soup or clear meat broth. 
Roast mutton or baked veal. 

Corn on the cob or cooked onions. 
Beet tops or other greens. 

Dish of ice cream with or without 
fresh fruits or berries. 


128 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


Let us make a few comments on 
these menus. 

Many will tell you that it is a die¬ 
tetic crime to use fruits and vegetables 
in the same meal. The theory may be 
fine, but it does not work out in prac¬ 
tice. What do you and I care about 
theory so long as the practice is all 
right? We are practical persons, and 
are out for results. So if you like to 
combine fruits and vegetables you 
may do so. Try a fruit and vegetable 
salad like this: Lettuce, celery, mild 
apples and nuts. If you masticate it 
well you will like it, and it will like 
you. 

When butter is mentioned in these 
menus, you may substitute peanut 
butter, nut butter, oleomargarine, olive 
oil or other clean fatty substance. 

Most people are astonished when 
129 


CURING CATARRH, 


they see a breakfast planned without 
some kind of breadstuff or other ce¬ 
real. The sweet fruits, especially figs, 
dates and raisins, are more nourishing 
than the same weight of bread. So 
the nourishment is there even if no 
breadstuff is used. 

Vegetarians can eat nut meats or 
eggs instead of fish or meat, when 
these foods are mentioned in the 
menus. 

You will note that I have listed two 
kinds of cooked succulent vegetables 
for most lunches and dinners. It is 
not necessary to use more than one. 
You can select one kind of succulent 
vegetable and eat all you wish of it, 
and it will serve fully as well as two 
varieties. Sometimes you may use 
three kinds, if you so desire. 

If constipated, eat freely of the dif- 
130 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


ferent kinds of boiled greens, such as 
spinach, beet tops, turnip tops, kale, 
chard and dandelion. 

The dry or ripe beans are very 
heavy, nourishing foods. When they 
are eaten they should be taken in sim¬ 
ple combinations. They should also 
be very well masticated. 

It is not necessary to eat potatoes 
and bread with meat meals. Potatoes 
may occasionally form a part of the 
meat meal, but it is best not to take 
breadstuff s and meat in the same meal. 
Too much bread will cause excessive 
acidity of the body. 

Macaroni and cheese or spaghetti 
and cheese or rice and cheese will take 
the place of meat; so will the cooked 
ripe beans or peas or lentils. 

Desserts are not compulsory. 
Those who are subject to catarrh will 
131 


CUBING CATARRH , 


do best if they do not eat desserts. 
However, they will recover even if 
they eat plain desserts in moderation, 
but desserts should not be taken daily. 

To summarize the subject of the 
cure of chronic catarrh: 

It consists in living so that the whole 
body becomes clean and sweet. It 
consists in living right. Looked upon 
broadly, all disease is one, and funda¬ 
mentally there is but one proper treat¬ 
ment of disease, which is to correct the 
mistakes the individual is making, 
substituting right habits for the wrong 
ones. The cure consists in building a 
strong, healthy body. The wrong 
thing to do is to use remnants of magic, 
such as serums and drugs. The most 
important points in permanently rid¬ 
ding the body of catarrh are: 

I.—Keep the bowels clean. 

132 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


2. —Keep the circulation and the 
muscles toned up with exercise. 

3. —Have pure air day and night. 

4. —Keep the skin normal by giving 
it a dry rub every day, and taking the 
baths, both internal and external, nec¬ 
essary for keeping clean. 

5. —For liquid rely chiefly on water, 
avoiding drugged drinks, such as tea, 
coffee and alcohol. 

6. —Eat properly, according to out¬ 
lines just given. Correct eating is by 
far the most important part. Often 
it is all that is necessary in order to 
bring about a cure. 

Coughs 

There are various kinds of coughs 
and different causes give rise to them. 

The nervous cough explains itself. 
It is a habit, and largely the result of 
133 


CURING CATARRH ’ 


suggestion. Those who suffer from 
nervous cough will cough when they 
hear others do so or when they think 
about coughing or hear others talk 
about it. Mental training will over¬ 
come it. 

There is the heart cough, due to ac¬ 
cumulation of blood in the lungs when 
the heart does not properly perform 
its pumping function. This will spon¬ 
taneously recover if the heart regains 
its working power. 

There is the cough called stomach 
cough. This occurs when the stomach 
or bowels are full of gas or when 
there is a great deal of acidity of the 
system. Some deny that there is such 
an “animile” as stomach cough, but 
coughing does at times result from an 
upset digestive tract. If there is much 
gas produced in the digestive tract, 
134 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


that can cause pressure on the lungs 
and coughing; on the other hand the 
acids when produced in excessive quan¬ 
tities get into the blood and directly 
irritate the lungs. 

Most of the coughs are produced by 
direct irritation of the respiratory 
tract. The breathing apparatus tries 
to keep itself clean, and it resents the 
presence of any substance that tries to 
lodge within its passages. A small 
amount of mucus, just enough to oil 
up the apparatus, is normal. But 
when a great amount of mucus gath¬ 
ers, it becomes a foreign body, an irri¬ 
tant, and then an effort is made to 
expel it. This is the reason for cough¬ 
ing in bronchitis, pulmonary tubercu¬ 
losis, or other forms of inflammation of 
the respiratory tract. 

The cough is not a disease, merely 
135 


CURING CATARRH , 


a symptom. It is foolish to treat the 
cough. We should not try to sup¬ 
press it, but we should attempt to re¬ 
move the causes that produce it. 

Diseases of the respiratory tract, 
which produce the cough, are to be 
cured and the cough can be left to take 
care of itself. Colds and catarrhs 
cause much coughing, and we have 
dealt with those subjects already. 

The thing to remember about 
coughs is, that they are symptoms of 
physical or nervous derangements 5 
that it is useless to treat the coughs» 
and that the proper thing to do is to 
remove the causes of the coughs, and 
then the coughs will take care of them¬ 
selves. 

Reading this book will do no special 
good unless you put the teachings into 
practice. If you do as did the young 
136 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


man who just dropped in to see me 
you will get no results. I told him to 
masticate his food well and not drink 
anything while he was eating; that is, 
I instructed him not to wash his food 
down with liquids. “I have followed 
your instructions to the letter,” he told 
me. “You have not been drinking 
during meal times?” I inquired. 
“Well,” replied he, “I take a bite of 
food and a swallow of water and then 
another bite of food and another swal¬ 
low of water, but you know a fellow 
can’t eat his food dry.” 

And he had followed my directions! 

If you desire the good results that 
are possible, you have to read intelli¬ 
gently and carefully, and then follow 
instructions to the letter. It is true 
that the knowledge is simple and easy 
137 


CURING CATARRH ’ 


to understand, but it is not like read¬ 
ing a popular novel. 

The average case of catarrh is cur¬ 
able, and it is folly to retain a disease 
which is rather easily conquered. 

Acute Catarrhal Tonsillitis 

Perhaps this heading is not strictly 
correct, for we shall deal with follicu¬ 
lar tonsillitis and with what is 
medically known as parenchymatous 
tonsillitis too, the latter being popu¬ 
larly known as quinsy (tonsillar ab¬ 
scess ). However, these tonsillar forms 
of inflammation are very much the 
same thing, differing mostly in degree 
of severity. 

In all forms of tonsillitis the tonsils 
are inflamed and more or less swollen. 
Depending on the severity of the 
trouble, the surrounding tissues are 
138 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


more or less affected. Usually the 
mucous membrane of the surrounding 
structures is red and swollen. In 
plain catarrhal tonsillitis the inflam¬ 
mation is mostly near the surface; in 
quinsy the entire tonsillar structure is 
usually involved, with pus formation. 
In follicular tonsillitis the characteris¬ 
tic formation is cheesy matter in the 
crypts or follicles of the tonsils. This 
cheesy matter can be pressed out. It 
is not pus, as so many think; it is 
merely a cheesy formation due to the 
fact that the follicles of the tonsils do 
not cleanse themselves but allow old 
cells and mucus to gather and to start 
to degenerate. And it is not an indi¬ 
cation that an operation is needed. 

What causes tonsillitis? Read the 
causation of catarrh in this book and 
you have the etiology of tonsillitis. 

139 


CURING CATARRH ’ 


True, excess of heat or cold can start 
the inflammation; tobacco smoke; bad 
air; too many irritating fumes in the 
air; extension of a nasal cold; fevers. 
These can be exciting causes. But the 
fundamental cause is impoverished 
blood in which there is an excess of 
acids and other wastes. 

The symptoms are rather well 
known. Discomfort in the throat, 
sometimes amounting to severe pain, 
is common. Difficulty in swallowing is 
an ordinary symptom, and sometimes 
this is extreme. The fever varies from 
almost none to very high. Sometimes 
the tonsils swell until difficult breath¬ 
ing ensues. Cough is sometimes pres¬ 
ent. In some forms of tonsillitis the 
prostration is pronounced. 

It is easy enough to treat most cases 
of acute tonsillitis, for the trouble has 
140 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


a habit of vanishing in a few days if 
reasonable care is given. But it takes 
real knowledge and skill to educate 
people to the point of preventing ton¬ 
sillitis, and this is much more impor¬ 
tant than treating an acute attack. 
There is a great tendency for this afflic¬ 
tion to return because the throat and 
adjacent structures are exposed to 
many abuses, and the tissues are some¬ 
times very sensitive. 

In severe cases the patient should 
remain in bed. If there is much fever, 
the fast should be absolute until the 
fever vanishes. In these cases the suf¬ 
ferer should go to bed and live on 
water, keeping the feet warm. 

In all cases see that the bowels are 
kept clean, either through the use of 
laxatives or enemas. 

In severe cases with extensive in-. 

141 


CURING CATARRH 


flammation use cold applications on 
the throat—wet packs. Cold water or 
ice packs may be applied to the neck; 
or the patient may be given very cold 
water to sip or ice to suck. 

Alkaline sprays are all right; a 
spray of common baking soda or table 
salt dissolved in water is good for 
clearing the throat. Painting or spray¬ 
ing the inflamed surfaces with solution 
of silver nitrate often helps to shorten 
the period of inflammation, but this 
should not be attempted unless the in¬ 
dividual knows what he is doing. 

It is best not to eat at all during 
the acute attacks. Those with mild 
attacks will recover in reasonable time 
even if they eat some fresh juicy fruit 
or take fresh fruit juice mixed with 
water—no sugar. But those who have 
142 


COUGHS AND COLDS 

severe attacks should eat absolutely 
nothing. 

Of course, some echo will now come 
along and say, “The patient must eat 
to keep up his strength/’ That is 
wrong. Food does not increase 
strength during fevers; in these cir¬ 
cumstances food makes the fever 
worse, increases the prostration and 
lengthens the duration of the illness. 
Milk, broth, custard—in fact, all foods 
are bad in severe fevers and in inflam¬ 
matory conditions. 

The proper treatment then is to keep 
the patient quiet and warm; to have 
plenty of fresh air, but it should not be 
cold enough to be irritating; to give all 
the water desired, and if the inflamma¬ 
tion is extreme to allow the patient to 
suck ice or give iced drinks to be 
sipped slowly; to keep the bowels 
148 


CURING CATARRH , 


clean, and tepid enemas containing a 
little pure soap or a tablespoonful of 
common baking soda to the quart of 
water are good for this purpose; to 
give absolutely no food until the fever 
vanishes, and please remember that 
this means no food, either liquid or 
solid. Yes, madam, and yes, sir, eggs 
and milk and custard and broths are 
foods and they are not to be given dur¬ 
ing the feverish and painful stage of a 
bad case of tonsillitis, unless you wish 
the trouble to continue long and to be 
unduly severe. 

In case of high fever, a good hot 
bath is indicated to reduce the fever. 
Sounds peculiar and even unreason¬ 
able, does it not? But it is sensible and 
it works. Let me explain: In bad 
cases of tonsillitis the patient is on ten¬ 
sion and nervous, full of pain, and 
144 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


troubled with blood engorgement 
(congestion) in the region of the 
throat. A hot bath equalizes the circu¬ 
lation, thus helping to relieve the en¬ 
gorgement of blood in the throat; a 
hot bath relieves tension through re¬ 
laxing the body; a hot bath opens the 
pores and that helps to rid the system 
of poison, and this, in addition to 
lowered nervous tension, aids in reduc-, 
ing the fever. 

For those who have bathing facili¬ 
ties here is a good way to give the hot 
bath: Open the bathroom window 
enough so that the ventilation is good; 
get into the bath, having the water as 
warm as the body will tolerate and 
keep it warm by adding hot water from 
time to time; keep a cloth dipped in 
cold water on the forehead; remain in 
the bath until thoroughly relaxed, 
145 


CURING CATARRH , 


which may require twenty or forty or 
sixty minutes; after getting out of the 
tub wrap up well in robes and blankets 
so that perspiration can continue, and 
keep o^it of draughts for the next few 
hours; when perspiration stops dress in 
dry garments, but it is best before so 
doing to sponge off the body with tepid 
water and wipe dry. 

Those who have no bathing facilities 
—indeed there are such persons—can 
take a sweat bath in bed by using jugs 
of hot water, or hot bricks or hot stones 
wrapped in cloth, or hotwater bags, 
and packing around the body, being 
very careful not to burn the patient. 
These means of producing sweat 
should be kept at a little distance from 
the body so as not to burn the skin. 

When the acute attack is over, live 
right in general, keep the body clean 
146 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


within and the skin active without, and 
be sure to eat right, and stop the ton¬ 
sillitis business. 

Let me show how it works: About 
six years ago a woman came under my 
supervision with this history: She had 
had tonsillitis rather regularly since 
childhood. During the ten previous 
years she had many minor attacks and 
on the average four attacks each winter 
when she was forced to go to bed with 
high fever and prostration due to 
quinsy sore throat, as she called it. 
The engorgement and swelling were 
extreme and the formation of pus was 
rather copious. 

Discussion and examination elicited 
these facts: All her previous physi¬ 
cians had told her that recovery with¬ 
out operation was impossible, that is, 
the attacks would recur unless she had 
147 


CURING CATARRH, 


the tonsils removed. She was very 
much afraid of the knife, probably be¬ 
cause she knew of several instances 
where the patients had lost their life 
through hemorrhage immediately fol¬ 
lowing the operation. She was 
wealthy, lazy, self-indulgent and very 
fond of rich foods. She weighed about 
forty pounds too much. She was de¬ 
cidedly hyperacid. 

She was directed during the attacks 
she was having, along the lines just 
given. When she recovered from the 
acute attack she was placed on a diet 
of absolutely nothing but juicy fruits 
to which no sugar was added, and 
cooked and raw succulent vegetables, 
and kept on this diet for two weeks. 
This started the cleansing process 
within the body and the weight reduc¬ 
tion. 


148 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


Then the diet was gradually in¬ 
creased, toast being allowed once a 
day, one or two slices lightly buttered; 
and she was allowed to take either a 
dish of cottage cheese or a glass of 
milk once a day. Meat and fish and 
all kinds of desserts were prohibited 
for a month. 

Then she was placed on a diet such 
as you will find outlined under chronic 
catarrh, except that she was required 
to eat very moderately of fatty and 
starchy foods, so that she would con¬ 
tinue to lose weight. 

At the end of three months she was 
thirty pounds lighter than in the be¬ 
ginning, the hyperacidity was largely 
overcome, and her throat felt better 
than it had for years, she said. I saw 
this lady occasionally during the next 
three years. In that time she had no 
149 


CURING CATARRH , 


attacks of tonsillitis and she was not 
troubled with the colds which had 
annoyed her so in the past. 

Remove the cause, which is some¬ 
times local irritation, but most of the 
time impoverished blood due to wrong 
living, and the acute tonsillitis quits 
coming. 

Very, very seldom is the condition 
so bad that instrumental or surgical 
aid is necessary. Of course, operation 
is the quickest way to remove an 
annoying symptom. 

But does that satisfy you? 

Chronic Tonsillitis 

The chief sign of this trouble is en¬ 
larged tonsils, which are often so irri¬ 
tated that an excess of mucus appears 
on the surface. Frequently it is easy 
to press out of the crypts cheesy ma- 
150 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


terial, but this is not pus. Sometimes 
the tonsils in this condition impinge 
on the Eustachian tube, causing more 
or less deafness. Bad breath and sore 
throat are rather common. 

The cause is the same as that of 
acute tonsillitis; in fact the chronic 
form is often the result of repeated 
attacks of the acute affliction. 

The question is whether to operate 
or not to operate. If you operate you 
remove the chief manifesting symp¬ 
toms—the large tonsils—but the real 
disease remains in the body to cause 
trouble in some other way. 

Those who see this matter in a true 
light realize that chronically abnormal 
tonsils are a signpost indicating a bad 
general condition of the body, and this 
is what they do: 

They begin to breathe more and eat 
151 


CURING CATARRH , 


less; they begin to exercise more; they 
drink a fair amount of pure water; 
they cleanse the bowels regularly; 
they keep the skin active through 
baths and dry rubs. 

They take care of themselves as out¬ 
lined for sufferers of chronic catarrh. 

How about local treatment? 
Gargles of salt in water, or bicarbo¬ 
nate of soda in water, or lemon juice 
in water are good. Those who care 
to have astringents applied locally can 
do so with the knowledge that at times 
this helps to shrink the enlarged ton¬ 
sils. I have seen very large tonsils 
greatly reduced in a few months by 
pricking them so they would bleed. 

The mortality following removal of 
the tonsils is small, but it is large 
enough to remind us that the danger 
is there. 


152 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


Acute Catarrhal Laryngitis 

This is the same as acute catarrh 
elsewhere, the only difference being 
the location in the region of the vocal 
cords. 

Here catarrh is often caused by in¬ 
ordinate smoking, use of too much al¬ 
cohol, and an excessive use of the 
voice. Otherwise the causation is 
similar to that of other acute catarrh. 
Frequently the catarrhal condition 
starts in the nose and extends to the 
larynx. 

The chief symptoms are tickling in 
the throat, huskiness of voice grading 
into hoarseness. In severe cases it is 
difficult to breathe and painful to 
swallow. 

The treatment is simple, and if used 
153 


CURING CATARRH , 

in the early stages it is quickly effec¬ 
tive. 

If the individual is very young or 
very old or weak, he should be put to 
bed and kept in a room where the air 
is fresh but the temperature even. So 
as to keep cold air from irritating the 
larynx it is best to maintain the tem¬ 
perature of the room as high as sixty 
degrees F. 

Keep the feet warm. Give a laxa¬ 
tive to cleanse the intestinal tract. 

The best food until the acute attack 
passes is no food at all; give all the 
water the patient wishes. The more 
you feed the longer the trouble will 
last. Next best to no food is giving 
the juice of fresh fruit mixed with 
water, and no sugar is to be added. 
Or succulent vegetables may be given 
until the attack passes. 

154 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


In bad cases, a fine means of sooth¬ 
ing the inflamed membranes is to use 
steam inhalation. An apparatus may 
be improvised by attaching a rubber 
hose to the spout of a kettle full of hot 
water, which however must not be over 
the fire, for it is necessary to be care¬ 
ful not to burn the throat with too hot 
vapor. 

An excellent aid in overcoming the 
congestion and inflammation of the 
larynx is to use a wet pack, either 
warm or cold. For the benefit of those 
who do not know how to make the wet 
pack: Take a strip of cloth, fold it 
several times; dip it in water and 
wring out so that it is very wet but not 
dripping; place this wet cloth as high 
up on the neck as you can; then take 
either dry flannel or dry woolen mate¬ 
rial of other kind and completely 
155 


CURING CATARRH 


cover the wet cloth. Pin in place and 
leave on for forty minutes to an hour. 
Repeat as often as necessary. 

A gargle of tepid water containing 
a little table salt is cleansing and in 
cases of this kind may be used three 
or four times a day. 

Robust individuals need not go to 
bed, but should miss a few meals, avoid 
extreme temperatures, and see that 
the bowels are kept thoroughly clean. 

During an acute attack, use the 
voice as little as possible. 

Read the chapter on Acute Catarrh. 

Chronic Catarrhal Laryngitis 

This is, of course, a chronic inflam¬ 
mation of the vocal apparatus. The 
cause is the same as chronic catarrh, 
with the exception that tobacco and 
overuse of the voice play a prominent 
156 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


part here. Sometimes chronic laryn¬ 
gitis is due to repeated attacks of the 
acute form; sometimes it is due to 
irritation from bad air; very often it 
is caused by subnormal condition of 
the entire body. 

Hoarseness, cough, tickling in the 
throat and discomfort when the voice 
is much used are the chief manifesta¬ 
tions. This affliction is a tragedy to 
actors, clergymen, singers and other 
persons in public life. 

Gargles and sprays and local treat¬ 
ments and wet packs may afford re¬ 
lief, but they are not curative. 

To bring about a cure: Eat right, 
drink right, think right, breathe right, 
exercise and keep the body clean. As 
this is a form of chronic catarrh, see 
the recommendations under that head¬ 
ing. 


157 


CURING CATARRH , 


To illustrate: A singer had been 
losing his voice gradually for about 
four years. At the age of forty he 
was unable to practice his art. He had 
lost his high notes and singing was 
painful. He had also acquired thirty 
superfluous pounds of weight. 

For three weeks he was placed on a 
diet of nothing but juicy fruits and 
succulent vegetables; then he was 
placed on a diet such as you will find 
outlined in the pages dealing with 
chronic catarrh, except that he did not 
have po much starchy food, such as 
bread, toast and potatoes. 

He was also instructed to exercise 
and to take other health-building 
measures. 

Results: In six weeks he was able 
to make short public appearances; in 
three months he had good command 
158 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


of his voice and he carried the right 
weight. 

Then he was instructed how to live 
so as to remain well. He ceased hav¬ 
ing periodic colds and consequently 
has had no trouble in carrying on his 
artistic profession. 

Read the chapter on Chronic 
Catarrh. 

Adenoids 

This is a trouble that is called to 
our attention mostly in connection 
with children. It is also known as 
pharyngeal tonsillitis. In the begin¬ 
ning it is an overgrowth of the soft, 
glandlike tissue in the roof of the 
pharynx. This morbid growth may 
be great enough to obstruct nasal 
breathing. 

It is easy enough to find this con- 
159 


CURING CATARRH , 


dition when it is present. The eye 
tells a great deal and the finger or in¬ 
strument will find the soft mass of 
tissue in the pharynx. 

In children glandular tissue and 
glandlike tissue easily enlarge through 
any form of irritation. It is very com¬ 
mon to find children with enlarged 
glands in neck and throat. In fact, 
they have at the base of the neck a 
gland, the thymus, which vanishes in 
childhood. 

Children who have adenoids in 
severe form can be diagnosed at sight. 
They have an appearance of stupidity 
to all but those who love them dearly 
—the thickened nose, the thick lips, 
open mouth and dull look give a char¬ 
acteristic appearance. These children 
are not necessarily dull, but they are 
handicapped because they do not get 
160 


_ )UGHS AND COLDS 


enough air into the lungs. The ade¬ 
noid tissue retards breathing, and 
sometimes the nasal breathing is prac¬ 
tically wanting. 

Then the children have to resort to 
mouth breathing, which is the most 
characteristic sign of the trouble. As 
a result of this form of breathing the 
mouth and throat are often dry, and 
so are the trachea and bronchi. This 
condition gives rise to coughs and 
colds, even to bronchitis. 

If the condition is extreme the roof 
of the mouth becomes deformed, which 
throws the teeth out of line through 
traction on the upper jaw; and in very 
bad cases the chest may become 
deformed. 

These children find it difficult to 
keep their minds centered and hence 
make slow progress at school. 

161 


CURING CATARRH , 


The hearing is often affected, due 
to the pressure of the swollen tissue 
on the Eustachian tubes. 

What causes this trouble? It is al¬ 
most entirely due to wrong feeding 
habits. This cause is so predominat¬ 
ing and preponderant that other 
causes are best left unstressed. 

It is an almost universal habit to 
feed children too often and too much. 
Even in infancy a child would do best 
if fed not to exceed four times a day, 
and five feedings ought to be the limit. 
But what do people do to their de¬ 
fenseless babies? A dozen nursings 
or feedings a day are not out of the 
ordinary. As a result children de¬ 
velop trouble with the digestive 
organs, and that trouble is reflected in 
the other parts of the body. As the 
glandular structures, especially early 
162 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


in life, are quite unstable, they fre¬ 
quently are the localities where the 
results of the digestive troubles mani¬ 
fest. Here is the sequence: Too 
frequent and improper feeding, result¬ 
ing in indigestion, which causes an 
excess of gas and acid in the digestive 
system, part of which gas and acid is 
absorbed by the blood, where it acts 
as an irritant to various organs. 

Some babies show signs of catarrh 
a few days after birth, due to the 
mother’s unhygienic mode of living; 
and then the wrong feeding and over¬ 
feeding begin, aggravating the ca¬ 
tarrhal condition. 

Adenoids can with the utmost pro¬ 
priety be placed among the catarrhal 
diseases. 

When the child grows older the gen¬ 
eral rule is to feed sloppy, mushy 
163 


CURING CATARRH , 


foods. Even the so-called baby spe¬ 
cialists recommend soft, cooked 
cereals, which are one of the most pro¬ 
lific causes of adenoids, catarrh, croup, 
scarlet fever and diphtheria. Please 
remember that children can’t have 
these diseases so long as they have 
good blood, and correct feeding keeps 
the blood pure. 

Don’t feed the children sloppy 
foods; don’t feed them cooked cereals, 
for they swallow such foods whole. 
True, such foods may not need masti¬ 
cation, but they are starchy and need 
thorough insalivation in order to be 
digested properly. How many chil¬ 
dren insalivate such foods? If sugar 
is added, the trouble is even worse. 
Which brings up another point: 
Don’t give children sugar on any kind 
of grain food. White sugar is a curse 
164 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


to childhood. Here you have your 
lovely baby, and then you give it some 
nicely cooked oatmeal with sugar and 
rich milk. What is the result? The 
oatmeal (or other cooked cereal) slips 
down without being mixed with saliva; 
it ferments in the digestive apparatus, 
producing abnormal gases and acids, 
which are absorbed by the blood; the 
blood scatters these poisonous prod¬ 
ucts all over the body, and the most 
sensitive parts of the baby’s anatomy 
are irritated. 

Candies, cakes, puddings, pies, 
other pastries, fried foods, gravies, 
pickles, jellies and preserves, and 
white flour products are a partial list 
of the poor foods which children de¬ 
vour with injurious results to their 
health. In many the resulting ill is 
known as adenoids. Meat is another 
165 


CURING CATARRH , 


food that young children should not 
have. Eggs should be taken spar¬ 
ingly. A child aged four should not 
eat more than three or four of them 
each week. Young children can get 
all the albumin they need from milk 
—eggs and meat are not necessary 
foods for them. 

Please remember this: A child 
from the health standpoint is, as Her¬ 
bert Spencer said, a young animal. 
From the physical side the paramount 
consideration is to feed the young ani¬ 
mal correctly. Eight feeding builds 
health; wrong feeding causes disease. 

It is proper here to give this in¬ 
formation: A child after it stops its 
exclusively milk-fed career will thrive 
splendidly for the first five or six years 
if given only clean milk, whole wheat 
bread, fresh fruits and fresh vege- 
166 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


tables. In fact, that is the right way 
to feed young children. Of course, 
potatoes, or rice, or other good starchy 
foods may be substituted for whole 
wheat bread. 

Refined sugar is a disease-builder. 
Give the children figs, dates, prunes, 
raisins, thoroughly ripe bananas and 
other naturally sweet fruits and there 
is no need of white sugar. Honey is 
also a good sweet, in moderation. 

The approved method of treating 
adenoids is to remove them. But ade¬ 
noids are only a symptom of general 
physical derangement. Would you 
be satisfied to remove the symptom 
and allow the causes and evil condi¬ 
tions to continue manifesting? If you 
are, the child will develop some other 
physical ill or weakness. True, after 
an operation for adenoids a child often 
167 


CURING CATARRH , 


grows much brighter and advances 
physically and mentally. Removing 
the breathing handicap is a great help, 
for a sufficient amount of oxygen is 
one of the fundamentals of health. 

If you want to do the best by the 
child, and you decide to remove the 
enlarged adenoid tissue, be sure that 
you do not stop there. Find out where 
you have been at fault and correct 
those faults. In this way you will be 
able to raise a healthy child. 

It is a great mistake to rely too 
much on surgery, for in dealing with 
nose and throat conditions, in almost 
all cases removing tissue is merely cut¬ 
ting out a symptom or sign of internal 
trouble. Get rid of the underlying 
condition or conditions that cause these 
troubles. 

I know that the neighbors will feed 
168 


COUGHS AND COLDS 

your children; I know that they will 
get candies and other junk at school; 
and I know that children have so much 
imagination that they are untruthful; 
but in spite of this, if you will exercise 
reasonable care it is possible to raise 
children without serious illness. 

To show you what can be done in 
cases of this kind we shall give here 
one experience which is typical of 
many. From this you can learn what 
to do for your own child with adenoids. 

Jane was seven years old. She was 
physically and intellectually an aver¬ 
age child. The school nurse one day 
sent a note to the parents that the 
young lady had adenoids which ought 
to be removed. The parents for some 
reason had a horror of this kind of 
bloodshed, and brought the child to 
me. 

169 


CURING CATARRH , 


The girl had the typical adenoid 
face in mild degree—too open mouth, 
too thick lips, too puffy looking nose, 
and she partially breathed through 
the mouth. It was just an average 
case. The tonsils were too large, the 
mucous membrane of the throat too 
engorged, and the adenoid tissue was 
too swollen. 

We sat down and analyzed the case: 

1.—The young lady was somewhat 
constipated. She stayed in bed until 
it was time to make a rush preparation 
for school, which involved nervous ir¬ 
ritation on the part of the mother and 
a display far from amiable on the part 
of the young lady. She swallowed her 
breakfast in a hurry, and she did not 
have time to go to the toilet in proper 
fashion. The first instruction was: 
Breakfast or no breakfast, the young 
170 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


lady is to have a movement of the 
bowels before she goes to school; she 
is to educate them to work; she is to 
make this a part of her morning rou¬ 
tine. The second direction was: She 
is to eat breakfast and all other meals 
slowly. If she has not time to eat 
slowly she will miss her meals. 

2. —This brought us back to the fact 
that Jane was staying up late at night, 
and consequently could not get up 
early in the morning. The remedy was 
simple: Early to bed. 

3. —This brought up still another 
item. Jane easily took cold and she 
was restless at night, so it was neces¬ 
sary to have her sleep with the win¬ 
dows closed. Remedy: Open the 
windows, and tuck and pin the bed¬ 
ding so that the young lady would re¬ 
main covered. (In cases of very 

171 


CURING CATARRH , 


young children it is often well to have 
them sleep in a bag, so that they can’t 
kick off the covering and become too 
cold.) 

4.—The mother had casually told 
her daughter that she should not eat 
away from home. Jane denied that 
she ate candy at school, and cakes and 
doughnuts at Mrs. Brown’s. But a 
little discussion with me brought out 
the fact that this was a daily occur¬ 
rence. In fact, the chief attraction at 
Mrs. Brown’s was the food. Mother 
was horrified to find that her daugh¬ 
ter was a liar and threatened dire pun¬ 
ishment. I suggested that “Turn back¬ 
ward, turn backward, O Time in your 
flight, and make me a child again just 
for to-night,” would be good for the 
mother. Then, let her spend a little 
less time at bridge and dinner dances, 
172 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


and accept more responsibility for the 
daughter. Remedy: Mrs. Brown 
was asked, as a personal favor, not to 
feed the child, and she agreed. Little 
Jane promised to try hard not to eat 
candy at school. She was given raisins 
or dates or figs in each lunch to satisfy 
her craving for sweets. 

5. —The girl came to the office for 
the first time on a cold day. Her legs 
were bare and blue and her feet were 
cold. Remedy: We arranged for 
more comfort and less style. Stock¬ 
ings to cover knees, made of cotton 
not silk—during the cold weather. 

6. —The girl was very much inclined 
to remain in her room and play with 
books and dolls. So we arranged to 
have her properly dressed for the 
weather so that she could play out of 
doors. 


173 


CURING CATARRH , 


7.—The girl was fed the same as 
the adults—bread, meat, potatoes, 
brown gravies, pastries and the gen¬ 
eral run of refined foods found in pros¬ 
perous homes. We changed the sched¬ 
ule to the following: 

Breakfast 

Fruit, glass of milk and whole 
wheat biscuit. 

Lunch 

Whole wheat bread, butter, sweet 
milk, and some sweet fruit. 

Dinner 

Either baked potatoes or rice, with 
one or two liberal helpings of cooked 
succulent vegetables, and a raw salad 
vegetable. With this she could have 
either a dish of plain custard, or a dish 
of cottage cheese, or a glass of milk. 

174 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


She objected to the vegetables, for 
she had never eaten many of them. 
So the vegetables were served first, 
and the rule was that if she was not 
hungry enough to eat them she was 
not hungry enough for anything else. 
In a short time she liked the vegetables 
as well as any other food. 

We discarded meat for the time 
being. 

What were the results? In a few 
months the tonsils and throat looked 
so normal that the school nurse 
stopped bothering the parents with 
notices. The adenoid tissues grad¬ 
ually decreased in size. Jane’s face 
had a keener, brighter appearance, and 
she did much better work at school. 
In a few months she became a nose 
breather. 


175 


CURING CATARRH, 

There are cases so bad that it is 
best to remove the adenoids, but please 
remember that removing the warning 
signal is not removing the danger. If 
the adenoids are removed, also correct 
the faulty mode of living. In most 
cases surgical interference is uncalled 
for. 

Without doubt it is trouble to raise 
children, but most normal people find 
them more than worth it. Jane’s 
mother realized that the fault was 
largely her own. She began to spend 
less time in frivolous social fluttering, 
and gave more time to responsible 
supervision of her children. She be¬ 
came interested in the subject of 
healthful living for the entire family, 
and the results were happy for all 
concerned. 


176 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


Acute Bronchitis 

There are various forms of bron¬ 
chitis, but no useful purpose will be 
served by discussing more than two 
kinds here, ordinary acute bronchitis 
and the common chronic bronchitis. 
As the name indicates, this trouble is 
an inflammation of the bronchial tubes. 
Often some of the lung structure sur¬ 
rounding the bronchial tubes is in¬ 
volved. 

Acute bronchitis is what is often 
known as “a cold on the chest.” 
Usually the catarrhal process starts in 
nose, throat and larynx and extends 
through the trachea into the bronchial 
tubes. Occasionally the catarrhal 
process starts in the bronchi. 

The cause of this trouble is the same 
as that of ordinary colds in the head 
177 


CURING CATARRH , 


and has been discussed in the part of 
the book dealing with colds in general. 

It is well to repeat that the chief 
cause of colds is living in such an un¬ 
natural manner that the physical 
tonicity is reduced. The body de¬ 
fences grow weaker as health is de¬ 
pleted. Finally the stage is reached 
where health is no longer possible. 
Then the body is ready to be affected 
by any adverse influence, and in many 
individuals the result is bronchial ca¬ 
tarrh, or an acute cold. Sudden ex¬ 
posure to cold, undue chilling of the 
body, dampness and epidemic influ¬ 
ences are generally given as causes of 
this condition. But these are merely 
incidental causes. A chief cause is an 
excessive intake of food and drink. 
That is the reason that more colds of 
all kinds are encountered after 
178 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


Thanksgiving, Christmas and New 
Year than at any other time. These 
are the grand gorging seasons. Peo¬ 
ple eat so much that they cannot throw 
off the waste in the ordinary way and 
the result is frequently catarrh, rang¬ 
ing from lungs to eyes. 

For some reason the young and the 
old are more frequently afflicted with 
bronchial catarrh of the acute type 
than are those in the middle stretches 
of life. 

The symptoms are so well known 
that they need only incidental men¬ 
tion. Bronchial catarrh generally 
comes quite suddenly. The fever is 
generally moderate, seldom going 
above 103 degrees F. The chest pains 
are seldom great. The cough and ex¬ 
pectoration are annoying. With the 
179 


CUEING CATARRH , 


stethoscope we elicit rattling sounds 
in the chest. 

The most important part is the 
treatment. The idea has long pre¬ 
vailed that the proper thing to do is 
to suppress the cough and the ex¬ 
pectoration. A little straight think¬ 
ing will soon indicate to those who are 
good reasoners that this is a mistake. 
Quinine and opiates are the popular 
remedies. The opiates suppress the 
secretions, which is injurious to the 
patient. 

The correct treatment is to elimi¬ 
nate the poisons from the body as soon 
as possible. The four great eliminat¬ 
ing organs are the skin, the kidneys, 
the lungs and the bowels. Please bear 
this in mind and note how logical the 
treatment outlined below proves to be: 

1.—As soon as the chest cold mani- 
180 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


fests use a laxative, and it would be 
best to use an enema of tepid water 
to cleanse the lower bowel. In a bad 
cold this cleansing should be repeated 
the second and the third days of the 
illness. 

2. —Drink all the water that thirst 
calls for, and if there is no thirst drink 
five or six glasses of water, hot or cold, 
anyway. 

3. —Take a bath as warm as you can 
bear it, remaining in the hot water at 
least twenty minutes. Yes, do this 
even if there is a fever. Hot baths 
help to reduce such fevers. After the 
bath wrap up well in blankets or other 
warm clothes and remain wrapped up 
until the perspiration stops. 

4. —In severe cases it is best to go 
to bed, being sure to keep the feet 
warm. Use artificial heat in the foot 

181 


CURING CATARRH , 


of the bed, if necessary. Open the 
window enough to have free ventila¬ 
tion. 

In cases of old people it is abso¬ 
lutely essential to keep the feet warm. 
And old people should be moved about 
a little from time to time, for if they 
are allowed to remain in the same posi¬ 
tion too long pneumonia (due to 
gravitational settling of liquid in the 
dependent parts of the lungs) is apt 
to ensue. 

Please note the treatment outlined 
above: It cleanses by way of the skin, 
the lungs, the kidneys and the bowels. 

Debilitated persons should be 
rubbed gently all over the body once 
or twice a day. Olive oil or other 
edible oil used on the skin is good. 
The rubbing should be done in a warm 
room. Avoid chilling the patient. 

182 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


A warm j acket for the chest is sooth¬ 
ing. It can be made of a large towel 
lined with cotton and snugly pinned 
on; or it can be a woolen or flannel 
covering; or it can be an earthy appli¬ 
cation, the best advertised variety 
being antiphlogistine. 

5.—And now we come to a most im¬ 
portant consideration, the feeding. 

If it is a mild case with no percepti¬ 
ble fever, there is no need of complete 
fasting, nor going to bed, nor apply¬ 
ing chest jackets. In mild cases, re¬ 
duce the amount of food eaten by half. 
It would be a good idea to live on noth¬ 
ing but fresh fruits and fresh vege¬ 
tables for a few days. 

However, if the case is severe and 
considerable fever is present the pa¬ 
tient should go on a complete fast, 
which means to take nothing except 
183 


CURING CATARRH , 

water into the stomach. A little fresh 
lemon juice (no sugar) helps the 
cleansing process. 

How long should the fast last? 
Until the fever vanishes. How long 
will that be? If the bowels are kept 
clean, a hot bath such as we described 
above is taken, and a complete fast is 
instituted in the very beginning of the 
attack, often the fever vanishes in a 
day. Usually the chest is clear within 
three days and the fever a thing of the 
past, when these instructions are in¬ 
telligently observed. If the bron- N 
chitis is allowed to establish itself thor¬ 
oughly, then no one can estimate how 
long it will take to vanquish the 
trouble. 

Here is a point for you to decide: 
Would you rather get down to busi¬ 
ness and eradicate the acute bronchitis 
181 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


in a few days? Or do you prefer to 
keep it to torture you for weeks or 
months ? 

Please note that fasting means to 
live on water and nothing else. 
Broths, milk, eggs, custards and sub¬ 
stances of that kind are foods, and 
they help to keep up the fever and 
prolong the attack. 

In severe cases, by all means go onto 
a complete fast until the fever 
vanishes. 

If you enjoy acute bronchial ca¬ 
tarrh and wish to keep it longer, then 
eat fresh fruits and fresh vegetables. 

If you wish to keep it still longer 
enlarge the diet and live on fruits, 
vegetables, milk and toast with butter. 

If you wish to continue coughing 
indefinitely, help yourself to fish and 
meat in addition to the other items. 

185 


CURING CATARRH 

The animal foods are the most 
harmful ones to partake of in these 
circumstances. If you wish to rid 
yourself of this annoying condition in 
reasonable time, at least avoid milk, 
cheese, eggs, fish and meat until the 
fever and cough have vanished. 

When the acute bronchitis is con¬ 
quered, eat very moderately for a few 
days, and be prudent in the general 
physical care. 

“But you wouldn’t fast a baby!” 
many object. 

Wouldn’t I? 

Please let me tell you about an in¬ 
cident that occurred while I was pre¬ 
paring this manuscript. Some people 
who should have known better allowed 
a very mild case of bronchial catarrh 
to continue. For about three weeks 
they fed the baby as usual. At the 
186 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


end of this time, the child suddenly 
became feverish running a tempera¬ 
ture above 104 degrees F. Then the 
parents awoke. 

We gave the baby a piping hot bath 
and wrapped her up; we gave her all 
the water she wanted but for two days 
she had no food. At the end of that 
time, the fever and rattling had van¬ 
ished. Then the child was placed on 
about half rations. In two days the 
normal feeding was resumed. The 
child was one year of age. 

If a child takes a cold, the feeding 
should always be reduced. 

Many have the habit of catching 
cold. For six or seven months a year 
they have one cold after another. 
They are hardly over one until they 
take another. Frequently there is no 
period between their colds. The rea- 
187 


CURING CATARRH ’ 


son for this is that these persons are 
at all times suffering from autointoxi¬ 
cation. They have too much acid in 
their bodies. 

Recently I saw a gentleman who is 
past sixty years of age. Up to one 
year ago he had the habit of catching 
frequent colds. Then he undertook 
a course of personal health education 
under my care. I taught him to eat 
and drink right, to breathe deeply, to 
care for his skin, to exercise in mod¬ 
eration and to keep his intestinal tract 
tonic and clean. I shall quote his own 
words: “I used to have a cold on the 
chest nearly all winter and had fre¬ 
quent head colds. This winter I have 
not had any chest trouble. I had one 
light cold in the throat, but it did not 
go any farther, and it vanished in a 
few days. That is the sum of my 
188 


COUGHS AND COLDS 

catarrhal trouble during the past 
year.” 

Incidentally, his one little cold came 
after the Christmas-New Year season, 
so you doubtless know the reason. 

If you have the habit of catching 
cold—in nose, throat or chest—you 
can obtain the same results as this 
merchant did. The knowledge is here 
at your command. 

Read what has been said under the 
headings of Acute Catarrh and 
Chronic Catarrh. 

Chronic Bronchitis 

Chronic bronchitis is rather com¬ 
mon among individuals past fifty or 
sixty years of age. Sometimes it is 
due to repeated attacks of acute bron¬ 
chial colds, which occur so often that 
189 


CURING CATARRH , 


they become established as one of the 
physical habits. 

Generally this condition is due to 
other forms of. disease. The general 
bodily tonicity is lost, and the bron¬ 
chial structures degenerate with the 
rest of the body. It is common for 
people with rheumatic diseases, kid¬ 
ney troubles, heart disease, obesity and 
other chronic ills to develop bron¬ 
chitis. Excessive intake of alcohol and 
the use of tobacco are other causes. 
Sometimes the affliction is due to irri¬ 
tating substances inhaled with the air 
supply, such as irritating gases and 
excessive amounts of dust. 

Old people are the ones who are 
worst afflicted. The trouble is most 
pronounced during severe cold spells. 
For these reasons it is often known as 
the winter cough of the aged. It does 
190 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


not always wait until the sufferer is 
old to manifest. Some show decided 
symptoms of the trouble before they 
are forty years old. 

In this condition the bronchial tubes 
are irritated and sometimes inflamed. 
Ulcers may appear, and if they are 
extensive a little blood will show in 
the expectoration. In the beginning 
the bronchial walls are usually thick¬ 
ened and contain an excess of fibrous 
tissue; later the bronchial walls may 
grow too thin, and lose a great part of 
their mucous lining. 

Usually the pain and fever are ab¬ 
sent, or else slight. The cough is the 
annoying symptom. Sometimes it is 
severe enough to cause great weakness. 
The chest sounds indicate a roughened 
condition within. Sometimes the 
sounds are very loud and rattling in 
191 


CURING CATARRH, 


character. The expectoration varies 
from almost none to great quantities. 

The course of the trouble is often 
very chronic, the patient living and 
suffering for years. The greatest dan¬ 
ger is that it will lead to some other 
ill which will terminate life. 

During my medical college days I 
was taught that recovery is not to be 
expected, and I have never seen a re¬ 
covery in a serious case under the 
orthodox medical treatment. Change 
of air, a liberal diet and sedative 
drugs, often containing opium deriva¬ 
tives, are the chief constituents of the 
accepted treatment. 

Change of climate may be good, but 
it is not the principal essential, for 
chronic bronchitis is caused chiefly by 
autointoxication, which is mostly based 
on wrongs of digestion and elimina- 
192 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


tion. A too liberal diet is a mistake, 
for instead of keeping up the strength 
it bolsters up the bronchitis. If drugs 
are mild and help to eliminate poisons, 
they may be useful. But sedative 
drugs tend to keep the excretions 
within the body, and tonic drugs tend 
to irritate. On the whole the medica¬ 
tion is injurious to the patient. Even 
in the eyes of those who advocate the 
use of drugs, no curative effects are 
reflected. So why use the drugs? 

Those who are afflicted with bron¬ 
chitis will be glad to read my personal 
experience with this ailment. When 
I began my health work many patrons 
suffering from chronic bronchitis 
would come to me because of other ills. 
“Of course, I know that you can’t help 
the bronchitis,” was a common com¬ 
ment. They had accepted the chronic 
193 


CURING CATARRH , 

bronchial catarrh as a condition to be 
endured. 

But the vast majority of them had 
a pleasant surprise in store. As they 
recovered from their rheumatism, or 
chronic indigestion, or headache, or 
hyperacidity, or high blood pressure, 
or whatever the ill happened to be, the 
bronchitis had a habit of disappearing. 
Sometimes all the evil symptoms dis¬ 
appeared in as short a time as a month. 
Sometimes it required several months. 
Sometimes it was a gradual evolution, 
requiring a year or two or three be¬ 
fore the disease entirely vanished. 

Occasionally there was improve¬ 
ment, but a continuation of the trouble 
in milder form. In a large experience 
with these conditions I have never seen 
any complete failures when the suf¬ 
ferer was enough in earnest to give the 
194 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


matter a fair trial. If degeneration 
of the bronchial tissues goes to ex¬ 
tremes, these structures can never re¬ 
turn to normal. But even then there 
can at least be partial improvement. 

Most cases can recover so fully that 
the annoying symptoms—the worst 
ones being cough and expectoration— 
will vanish. 

Within the past four years I have 
had under my care two ladies who 
were both over seventy-eight years old, 
and both of them had previously suf¬ 
fered for years from chronic bron¬ 
chitis. One of them had had the 
trouble for over forty years. Both 
of these ladies began to follow direc¬ 
tions during the winter, with the re¬ 
sult that their symptoms soon grew 
less annoying. The following winter 
they had no bronchitis, and the last I 
195 


CURING CATARRH 


heard there had been no recurrence. 
When we began I merely told them 
that it was at least worth while trying 
to become comfortable. This shows 
how results will come even in extreme 
cases. In both instances the families 
had been told that nothing could be 
done, first because the condition is in¬ 
curable, and second«because the pa¬ 
tient was too old. 

Let us take a typical case and see 
what generally happens when we as¬ 
sist nature: A gentleman a little past 
the age of sixty came under observa¬ 
tion. For about ten years he had been 
troubled with chronic bronchitis. In 
the summertime it had been a little 
annoying. During the winter it had 
caused him great trouble. As he had 
made a comfortable fortune as a mer¬ 
chant, he was able to go to mild Texas 
196 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


points, or Southern California or 
Florida for the winter. But he was 
unable to find complete comfort, and 
he hated being a fugitive. 

This gentleman was suffering from 
general hyperacidity (acidosis), slug¬ 
gish intestinal action, and overweight. 
In other words, he was a victim of 
autointoxication. 

He did not exercise and he walked 
only when he was unable to call for the 
car. 

He enjoyed rich, delicate foods. 
Prohibition had not entered his home. 
He enjoyed the so-called good things 
of life and he had ample means to 
gratify his tastes. 

I explained to him that the real 
cause of his trouble was autointoxica¬ 
tion; that his elimination was subnor¬ 
mal, and for this reason waste matter 
197 


CURING CATARRH, 


was stored all through his body; that 
his eating was wrong, for it produced 
an excessive amount of waste, which 
the skin, lungs, kidneys and bowels • 
were unable to throw off; that he was 
further poisoning himself with nice 
Cuban tobacco, genuine pre-prohibi¬ 
tion booze, and three cups of coffee 
each day, sometimes aided by a little 
tea; that he was eating two or three 
times as much food as his body needed 
and that the excess of food was build¬ 
ing trouble for him; that he was allow¬ 
ing indolence to ruin his circulation 
and deteriorate his muscles. He was 
in such an advanced stage of deteriora¬ 
tion that to walk a block was fre¬ 
quently too great a task. His heart 
was sluggish, and he gave evidence of 
a touch of both diabetes and Bright’s 
disease. 


198 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


“Do you really want to recover?” 
he was asked. 

“Of course I do,” he retorted, some¬ 
what indignant at the form of the 
question, which to him seemed foolish. 
“I have everything to live for—a good 
home, a fine wife, thriving children 
and a nice lot of grandchildren. I 
enjoy life when I am comfortable.” 

So we got busy, and this is what 
we did: 

1.—Immediately we established the 
habit of giving the skin daily dry fric¬ 
tion. As he was unable to exercise 
in the ordinary sense of the word, this 
served as exercise in the beginning. 
This helped the circulation, and also 
toned up the skin so that it began to 
do a better excreting job. In three 
months the skin glowed with vitality, 
199 


CURING CATARRH 


and the complexion turned from pasty 
gray to a healthy tan tinged with pink. 

2. —We reduced the coffee drinking 
to one cup in the morning and no cups 
the rest of the day, and increased the 
water drinking. One cup of coffee 
contains some poison, but only one- 
third as much as will be found in three 
cups. We dispensed with the tea. 
Alcohol we tabooed entirely for two 
months and after that we confined it 
to one glass of wine on special holidays 
and birthdays. 

3. —We instituted the habit of deep 
breathing several times a day to im¬ 
prove the lung function and furnish 
more oxygen to the blood. This is a 
purifying measure. 

4. —As strength and endurance be¬ 
gan to return we began systematic 
stretching and bending exercises. We 

200 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


started with one minute of exercise 
morning and evening, and gradually 
increased until the exercise period was 
at least five minutes, twice a day. And 
the gentleman began to walk. In 
three months he could walk over a mile 
without tiring. 

5. —He was taught to be regular, 
to help improve the intestinal func¬ 
tions. Deep breathing, exercise, right 
drinking and correct eating helped, 
and in a few months he was able to 
dispense with laxatives. 

6. —As he was fat and slightly dia¬ 
betic we took sugar away. We also 
reduced the bread eating, and omitted 
from the menus all fried foods, all 
greasy cooking, all pastries, jams, 
jellies, preserves and pickles. 

As he had a touch of Bright’s dis¬ 
ease we reduced the meat eating. In- 
201 


CURING CATARRH , 


stead of having meat three times a 
day, we had it served only for the din¬ 
ner meal. 

He had eaten vegetables very spar¬ 
ingly, so we taught him to eat freely 
of vegetables both for lunch and din¬ 
ner. He had raw salad vegetables, and 
the cooked succulent vegetables at 
both meals (see back of book for list 
of these vegetables). 

We did away with canned fruits and 
used the fresh fruits instead, allowing 
no sugar to be added. 

We changed the eating routine so 
that he quit lunching between meals, 
and we instructed him to eat slowly. 

What were the results? At the end 
of three months he could walk and 
work as much as he pleased. He 
showed no further signs of bronchitis. 
Even a most careful examination 
202 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


showed no further trouble with the 
kidneys—the sugar and albumin had 
cleared up. He lost about twenty- 
five pounds of weight and gained much 
strength in those three months. 

At the end of six months he was ex¬ 
amined again, and the favorable re¬ 
sults were confirmed. By this time he 
had lost about forty pounds of weight, 
being normal in this respect. He felt 
well, he looked well, and no signs of 
disease could be found in his chest. 
His heart worked regularly and firmly. 

The following winter he had one 
slight nasal cold, but no bronchitis. 
He considered himself well, and he 
doubtless had better health than 
ninety per cent of those he met on 
the street. 

Why tell these tales from life? Be¬ 
cause if you are a victim of bronchitis 
203 


CURING CATARRH . 


you can apply these helpful truths to 
yourself with the knowledge that your 
chances are excellent to vanquish the 
trouble. However, the good results 
which are set forth in these pages came 
to people who were determined to re¬ 
cover. They not only pretended to fol¬ 
low instructions. They actually did 
as they were told to do. They did not 
merely read the instructions and say: 
“This is old stuff. It won’t work.” 
They gave nature a chance to demon¬ 
strate what she can do. 

To finish the tale: The correct care 
in chronic bronchitis is the same in a 
general way as that in chronic catarrh, 
so you are referred to the chronic ca¬ 
tarrh portion of this book for further 
information and elucidation. 

Those who have in addition to bron¬ 
chitis such troubles as hardening of 
204 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


the arteries, high blood pressure, rheu¬ 
matism, heart trouble, kidney afflic¬ 
tions, engorged liver, constipation or 
various other ills, need special knowl¬ 
edge to overcome those afflictions. 
There is not enough room within these 
covers to go into detail about them. 

Hay Fever 

Hay fever is a peculiar disorder. 
Most people think of it as being due 
to the pollen of various weeds, grasses, 
grains, flowers and trees. Some are 
susceptible to one pollen, and some to 
another. This is really one part of 
the truth. 

Here is another part of the truth: 
Many individuals live in such a way 
that they lose the general tonicity of 
their body. They become so full of 
acids and other waste materials that 
205 


CURING CATARRH, 


they are easily afflicted when sur¬ 
rounded by the smallest of adverse in¬ 
fluences. Among other parts of the 
body the mucous membranes grow un¬ 
duly tender and sensitive. 

Let us then put together the entire 
truth: Some of these hypersensitive 
persons with delicate mucous mem¬ 
brane in the head are easily disturbed 
by the various fine particles in the air 
in summertime. 

So the real cause of hay fever is that 
people lead such abnormal lives that 
they are unduly upset by conditions 
common during the warm weather in 
the temperate zone. 

The ordinary treatment of hay 
fever is mostly local. Various drugs 
are sprayed or applied on the sensi¬ 
tive spots of mucous membrane; or 
various electrical treatments are given; 

206 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


cautery (burning) is resorted to. Too 
frequently in the past an excess of 
cocaine has been used, or too much 
adrenalin. For the benefit of those 
who use such powerful agents, it is 
well to remember that after these 
strong drugs have produced relief the 
condition grows worse again—even 
worse than it was originally. 

Another treatment now very popu¬ 
lar is to give the patient extract of the 
pollen to which they are sensitive. 
Some get absolutely no results from 
this treatment, and some report relief. 

The symptoms of hay fever need 
very little describing. The red eyes, 
flowing tears, tickling, itching, sneez¬ 
ing, burning and irritation of the 
mucous membrane of the head are well 
known. Sometimes cough is present. 

207 


CURING CATARRH , 

The mucous discharge is often very 
thin. 

Hay fever is not the real disease. 
It is merely a symptom of internal 
perversions. For this reason it is not 
wise to be satisfied with local treat¬ 
ment of the hay fever. Remove the 
cause of the trouble, which is far more 
deep-seated than the mucous mem¬ 
brane manifestations. 

One point that very few people pon¬ 
der is this: Discomforts are generally 
signposts of internal perversions. 
Often it is possible to remove these 
signposts, but the internal perversions 
remain. It is possible to change the 
manifestations of disease, but what 
good does it do to subdue one form of 
trouble if another kind—maybe more 
dangerous—springs up to take its 
place ? 


208 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


If you will sit down and figure out 
the proposition, you will readily see 
that most of the medical treatment is 
merely tinkering with symptoms, that 
is, subduing effects. We ought to 
work with causes, and thus get perma¬ 
nently good results. 

One of my old patrons will illustrate 
and illuminate this entire subject. He 
has been subject to hay fever for more 
than twenty years. He is prosperous 
and well able to give himself the right 
kind of care. He can have hay fever 
or he can escape it, as he elects, and 
he does not have to leave the city to 
remain free from the trouble. A large 
part of the time he treats himself well, 
but a part of the time he chooses to be 
self-indulgent. He is quite fond of 
fine liquors, and the Volstead Act 
seemingly has not changed the quan- 
209 


CURING CATARRH, 


tity nor quality of his stock. Liquor 
does not agree with him; sometimes a 
moderate quantity makes him ill, but 
he indulges his desires once or twice a 
week, each time hoping that the evil 
results will not manifest. An excess 
of meat and bread also upset him— 
what is excess for him would be great 
moderation for many men. He runs 
his chances on these foods most of the 
time. 

One fall he made up his mind to 
escape hay fever the next season. We 
limited the liquor strictly to one glass 
of wine a week—none would have been 
better. 

We limited the meat eating to three 
times a week, and we entirely elimi¬ 
nated beef and pork. In the meal 
when he had meat we allowed pota¬ 
toes, but prohibited bread. 

210 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


Every breakfast he had some fresh 
fruit, and with that he had some kind 
of well baked grain food, but mushy 
foods were taboo., 

White sugar was left out of his 
menu, but he obtained sweets from 
raisins, figs, dates, prunes, ripe 
bananas, maple sugar and honey. He 
also had all fruits in season, except 
that grapefruit was almost entirely 
omitted because it was too acid for 
him. 

At lunch he always had a large dish 
of plainly cooked succulent vegetable; 
with this he generally had buttermilk 
or cottage cheese and toast with butter. 

At dinner he always had one or two 
liberal dishes of cooked succulent vege¬ 
tables, and a goodly helping of raw 
vegetable salad. (He sometimes had 
raw vegetable salad for lunch too. 

211 


CURING CATARRH , 


Study with care the last two chapters 
of this book.) 

Vinegar was tabooed; so were pep¬ 
per and mustard and pickles and 
jellies and jams and preserves and 
candies and anything containing 
pastry crust and all fried foods. 

Most of the time he had no dessert, 
and when he indulged he had custard, 
or baked or cooked fruit, or dried fruit, 
or fresh fruit, or berries, or gelatin or 
sometimes plain vanilla ice cream. 

If you have read with care you will 
notice that the gentleman ate the 
simple foods; that he avoided the com¬ 
plex, messy foods; that a large part 
of his breakfast consisted of fresh 
fruits (berries and melons in season); 
that a large part of his lunch was fresh 
vegetables; that a large part of his din¬ 
ner was made up of fresh vegetables; 

212 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


further, that he had cooked succulent 
vegetables twice a day and raw salad 
vegetables once or twice a day. 

Besides this care in eating he took 
deep breathing exercises, dry rubs, and 
enough general exercises to keep his 
body tonic; he attended to the calls 
of nature. In a few months he was in 
superb physical condition. 

Yes, that year he avoided hay fever, 
without going north or to the moun¬ 
tains or to the coast. 

If you will do likewise, being sure 
to start months ahead of the hay fever 
season, the chances are largely in your 
favor of getting like results. 

But this is not the end of the tale. 
The succeeding year this gentleman 
decided to lead a more hectic life. The 
hay fever again showed up. Since 
learning how to avoid the trouble, as 
213 


CURING CATARRH 


most individuals can if they start in 
time, he has some years avoided it and 
some years had it. But he has always 
been careful enough to avoid having 
the extreme form of the condition 
which was his portion from ten to 
twenty years ago. 

To avoid hay fever, build up the 
general health, and then keep the body 
free from excessive amounts of acid 
and other wastes. 

Those who are subject to hay fever 
should eat very sparingly of foods of 
animal origin, especially of eggs, fish 
and meat; and more especially of beef 
and pork. These foods contain too 
much waste, and it is waste in the body 
that puts the individual in condition 
to suffer from hay fever. 

If the eyes are tender, sensitive and 
tearful, colored glasses and avoidance 
214 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


of strong light will help to relieve. 
Some local measures are helpful. For 
instance, those who have sensitive 
mucous membrane in nose and throat 
will do well to use a spray of any kind 
of bland oil night and morning, during 
the entire winter, and even in warm 
weather. Gargle of normal salt solu¬ 
tion is tonic to the mucous membrane, 
and a nasal wash of the same kind is 
all right. 

Right living will clear up most of 
the nasal difficulties. If there are mal¬ 
formations in the nose so extensive 
that they obstruct breathing they 
should be removed. But surgical 
means are not often required, if the 
individual keeps his blood in good 
condition. 

Again: Hay fever is a symptom of 
systemic abnormality. The correct 
215 


CURING CATARRH , 


treatment is to live so as to attain good 
general health. 


Asthma 

Bronchial asthma is so distinctive 
that it usually diagnoses itself. The 
difficulty in breathing is sometimes so 
extreme that it seems impossible to 
support life, but the asthma itself sel¬ 
dom terminates life. Some other dis¬ 
ease usually intervenes and proves 
fatal, before the asthma exhausts the 
individual. 

Severe as this condition often is, the 
lungs and bronchial tubes show very 
little change. Sometimes there are 
signs of bronchial inflammation, and 
sometimes the respiratory apparatus 
appears almost normal. 

In discussing this condition, we are 
excluding the form of asthma due to 
216 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


such severe heart disease that the heart 
is no longer able to pump the blood 
with normal force, and consequently 
the vital fluid is dammed back in the 
lungs, causing difficult breathing. 
Obviously, in this condition the re¬ 
covery of the asthma depends on the 
recovery of the heart. 

Asthma is one of those troubles 
usually looked on as incurable. Re¬ 
coveries are not expected, nor do re¬ 
coveries often occur under ordinary 
treatment. 

However, in ordinary cases of 
asthma under correct treatment (nat¬ 
ural treatment) recoveries will occur 
in at least eight cases out of ten. Such 
patients can remain well after they do 
recover, provided they will give them¬ 
selves the proper care. 

To show you what can and will hap- 
217 


CURING CATARRH , 


pen I shall take two instances from 
my own work: 

Mr. A. had suffered for seven years. 
Four of these years were spent in 
Ohio. Three of them were spent in 
Denver, where he went to be cured 
by the climate. He worked out of 
doors to get the benefit of the good air. 
But neither the climate nor the expert 
medical men helped him back to health. 
He continued to show asthmatic symp¬ 
toms daily. Then he came under my 
supervision. Please do not think that 
results come as quickly as they did in 
this case, but Mr. A. was free from 
asthmatic symptoms after following 
directions for two weeks. He re¬ 
mained under supervision two months. 
During that time he was educated in 
his manner of living, and he learned 
that by giving his body good care he 
218 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


could remain free from the affliction. 
He used to exhibit himself every few 
months during the next three years, 
and there was no return of asthma in 
that time. He was thirty-five years 
old at the time of his recovery. 

Mrs. C. had only suffered from 
asthma for four years, but it was in 
an aggravated form. Her spells were 
so bad that at times she had to spend 
several days in bed, due to weakness. 
She came from a family of doctors and 
had had expert attention from the 
cream of the profession in one of our 
largest cities. She was extremely 
hyperacid and suffered from indiges¬ 
tion. She was placed on a regime that 
reduced her hyperacidity and over¬ 
came her indigestion with the result 
that after she had lived correctly for 
a little less than a month she and the 
219 


CURING CATARRH , 


asthmatic symptoms parted company. 
(Again, allow me to warn you that re¬ 
sults cannot always be expected so 
quickly.) Mrs. C. was educated in 
ways of healthful living, and she re¬ 
mained well. 

To illustrate the trouble sometimes 
encountered in these cases, let us tell 
the tale of Mrs. N. She had a house 
facing the park but she had been re¬ 
duced to a condition where she could 
not even be taken there, much as she 
longed to go. Her asthma had 
troubled her over a decade. The good 
results came so quickly that they will 
not be recorded here. She was warned 
that she was not cured; but that the 
acid indigestion which caused the 
asthma had been relieved enough to 
cause the asthmatic symptoms to van¬ 
ish. At the end of the first month she 
220 


COUGHS AND COLDS 

knew she was well and refused to sub¬ 
mit to further supervision and educa¬ 
tion. Four weeks later she begged to 
be taken back into the fold again. She 
had actually gone back to pork sau¬ 
sage and hot cakes for breakfast, plus 
other deadly foods! This time she re¬ 
mained under supervision long enough 
to learn balance and to appreciate the 
importance of right living. When last 
heard from she had had no asthmatic 
troubles in five years. She was forty- 
two years old at the time of recovery. 

It would be easy to give illustra¬ 
tions among those who have suffered 
longer, but these will serve. The im¬ 
portant point is that in ordinary 
asthma the vast majority of patients 
can recover from all their evil symp¬ 
toms in a few months and they can 
through proper care remain well there- 
221 


CURING CATARRH , 


after. There may be cases of ordinary 
asthma that absolutely refuse to yield, 
but I have not seen any of them. Great 
improvement has been the invariable 
rule even in those cases that refused 
to yield completely. 

What causes asthma? In most in¬ 
stances autointoxication based on 
disturbances in the stomach and intes¬ 
tines. In this form of autointoxica¬ 
tion, hyperacidity is nearly always a 
factor. Every case of asthma I have 
seen has been due to abnormality in 
some other part of the body; in other 
words, asthma practically never origi¬ 
nates in the lungs, and it is useless to 
treat the lungs to overcome this 
trouble. The various forms of smoke 
and vapor and sedative drugs given 
may cause relaxation and temporary 
relief, but they do not cure. In the 
222 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


three cases quoted above, over half of 
the cures consisted in correcting the 
eating habits of the sufferers and over¬ 
coming the hyperacidity. The rest of 
the cure consisted in building up the 
general health. Prevention of return 
of the trouble was based on educating 
the patients to live in harmony with 
nature’s laws. 

If the asthma is largely due to an 
excess of smoke, dust or gas in the air 
it will be necessary to eliminate that 
condition. 

If the asthma is chiefly due to some 
other debilitating trouble in the body, 
such as sluggish liver or poorly func¬ 
tioning kidneys, it is necessary to build 
up the general health so as to remove 
the cause. 

If the chief cause of asthma is con¬ 
stipation, establish bowel regularity 
223 


CURING CATARRH ’ 


through proper eating, drinking, ex¬ 
ercise and breathing and make the 
elimination normal. 

If the chief cause is indigestion and 
hyperacidity—and that is nearly al¬ 
ways the basic cause—eat right and 
drink right. 

Here is a good place to pause a lit¬ 
tle and call attention to a most impor¬ 
tant fact: All of the diseases dis¬ 
cussed in this book are one and the 
same thing, but the locations and the 
manifestations (symptoms) vary. 

Some have the idea that nasal ca¬ 
tarrh is a distinctly differentiated 
entity; laryngitis is another entity; 
asthma is a third individual proposi¬ 
tion. But this is not true. These per¬ 
versions are basically one, merely dif¬ 
fering in their manifestation. 

From this it would seem that the 
224 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


causation is alike all through, and it 
is: The cause of all disease is living 
contrary to the laws of nature. 

The cure of all diseases is living in 
conformity with nature’s laws. 

While we are speaking of nature’s 
laws, it is well to remember that man 
is physical, emotional and mental 
(many will add spiritual). It is as 
important to take the emotional and 
mental natures into consideration as 
the physical factors. 

Such depressing, destructive emo¬ 
tions as envy, jealousy, anger and 
hatred help to build disease. Those 
who have chronic troubles and are ad¬ 
dicted to this kind of emotional living 
must remedy the matter before obtain¬ 
ing ideal results. 

On the mental side it is necessary to 
become positive, that is, look forward 
225 


CURING CATARRH , 


and upward with faith and hope, ex¬ 
pecting the good things in life. Those 
who have not looked into these things 
often scoff when told that it is neces¬ 
sary to control the mind and the emo¬ 
tions, but a little disinterested study 
will soon make the truth manifest. 
The mind is the guide of the body. 
As it leads the body must follow. Peo¬ 
ple who think sick invariably become 
sick. Those who truly desire health 
must think health. 

“Now I place you,” I can hear some 
say, as my personal patrons often 
speak when I admonish them about 
right thinking. “You are a Christian 
Scientist.” But your surmise is 
wrong. If I were a Christian Scien¬ 
tist I should tell you that you have no 
body and you have no lungs and you 
have no bronchial tubes and hence you 
226 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


can’t have any asthma or catarrh or 
bronchitis or tonsillitis. Mental truths 
were known long before Mrs. Mary 
Baker G. Eddy walked this earth and 
passed on. Read your Bible with an 
illuminated mind and you will find the 
important truths of one of the most 
recent hobbies—psychology—clearly 
stated. 

The first step in overcoming asthma 
is to make up your mind to get well. 

Then start on the physical side to 
build up the general health. Read 
what has been said on that subject 
under the heading of Chronic Ca¬ 
tarrh, and accordingly breathe fresh 
air, keep the bowels clean, make the 
skin active through baths and daily 
dry rubbings, improve the muscular, 
nervous and circulatory tone of the 
227 


CURING CATARRH , 


body through exercise—in other words, 
build up the general health. 

As for eating: If a patient is in 
bad condition and well fleshed it is a 
good idea to fast about a week. Dur¬ 
ing a fast a person should be sure to 
keep warm, especially keep the feet 
warm; see that the bowels are well 
cleansed even if it is necessary to use 
a daily injection of warm water; and 
avoid strenuous exertions. Also, be 
cheerful, allowing no fears to possess 
the mind. There is no danger in a 
fast, absolutely no danger in the short 
fast itself. But fear is dangerous dur¬ 
ing the fasting period. More than one 
individual has scared himself, or has 
been scared by others, to the point of 
death. Those who are afraid should 
not fast. 

In ordinary cases of asthma it is 
228 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


best to avoid meat, fish and eggs' for 
two or four weeks. 

Here is a good eating plan for ordi¬ 
nary asthmatics: 

Breakfast 

One kind of fruit, cooked or raw, 
without sugar. 

Toasted or stale whole wheat bread. 
Butter. 

Cup of cambric tea (one-third milk 
and two-thirds hot water). 

Lunch 

Whole wheat crackers or whole 
wheat bread (stale or toasted). 

One or two cooked succulent vege¬ 
tables (see last part of book for list 
of vegetables and mode of cooking). 

Butter. 

Glass of milk or buttermilk. 

229 


CURING CATARRH , 


For example, a lunch like this: 
Stale whole wheat bread, butter, 
cooked carrots, spinach and a glass of 
buttermilk. Have plenty of the vege¬ 
tables. 

Dinner 

One kind of nuts, or cottage cheese, 
or milk, or buttermilk. 

Potatoes, or rice, or macaroni, or 
crisp corn bread. Butter. 

One or two cooked succulent vege¬ 
tables, liberal amount. 

A raw vegetable, or a vegetable 
salad. 

For example: Pecan nut meats, 
baked potatoes, butter, stewed onions, 
string beans and celery. 

In making up menus I use the word 
“or” quite frequently, and my patrons 
have a peculiar habit of translating it 
to mean “and.” Also, they are in the 
230 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


habit of telling me something like this: 
“You didn’t say anything about mince 
pie or pickled pig snoots, so I ate 
them.” Those who get results are the 
ones who actually follow instructions. 

Be sure to eat slowly, cook plainly 
and dress the foods simply, as else¬ 
where directed. 

Please note that in the diet outlines 
suggested, all the foods are absolutely 
plain and natural. They are the foods 
that allow the body to clean house. 
Pickles, preserves, cakes, pies, pud¬ 
dings, fancy dressings, fried foods, 
greasy foods and all kinds of messy 
preparations help to foul the body, and 
internal filth is the real cause of 
asthma. 

After living on the above plan long 
enough to get good results, start to 
231 


CURING CATARRH , 

eat as recommended under the head 
of Chronic Catarrh. 

It is impossible to get all the in¬ 
structions you need in one reading, or 
two, or even three. To rid the body 
of an “incurable” disease is important 
enough to merit deep study of the 
directions. 

Bronchial asthma is rather common 
among children, and it is mostly due 
to indigestion based on wrong feeding. 

The writer has just seen a girl who 
is five and one-half years of age. Four¬ 
teen months ago this girl suffered 
severely from this disorder. She was 
living largely on mushes, sugar, sweet 
desserts, white bread and butter with 
jellies and jam, and milk. She was 
extremely hyperacid. We placed her 
on a diet like this: Breakfast corn- 
232 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


posed of glass of milk, one fresh fruit 
and whole wheat biscuit; lunch, stale 
whole wheat bread, butter, milk, and 
one cooked vegetable; dinner, baked 
potato, butter, one cooked vegetable, 
one raw vegetable, and one fruit. The 
bronchial asthma vanished in a few 
weeks and has not returned. 

There is a neighbor boy of the same 
age who has had this trouble almost 
three years. The boy’s mother saw 
what was done for the little girl, but 
it was evidently not to her liking, for 
she had his tonsils removed; then she 
had his adenoids scraped out. Each 
operation was supposed to be curative. 
The boy still suffers from bronchial 
asthma. The mother still feeds him 
greasy potato chips, white bread, jelly, 
pie, and various other foods not fit for 
children to eat. 


233 


CURING CATARRH , 


Of course, children need fresh air; 
they need to be kept warm; they need 
to eat slowly; they need to keep their 
bowels clean; in short, they need good 
general care. If this care is extended, 
plus correct feeding, illness in child¬ 
hood is almost eradicated. 

Intestinal Indigestion 

The digestive tract is on the average 
over twenty-five feet long. We have 
full control of the food that enters for 
only a few inches—the mouth. If we 
guard the mouth well, the digestive 
organs will take care of themselves. 
Give the body the right care and there 
will be no indigestion in stomach or 
intestines; especially eat right to avoid 
digestive ills. 

Every cause that can in a systemic 
way produce disease in any part of 
234 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


the body can be instrumental in caus¬ 
ing indigestion, for depression of any 
one part causes depression of all parts. 

But the paramount cause of intes¬ 
tinal digestion is wrong eating. Fried 
foods, greasy cooking, too great mix¬ 
ing of foods in each meal, elaborate 
dishes, undermasticating, hurried eat¬ 
ing, and overeating are some of the 
principal factors that cause indiges¬ 
tion, intestinal or otherwise. 

One prominent factor in intestinal 
indigestion is an excessive use of 
strong cathartics; and another one is 
depressing or violent emotions. Noth¬ 
ing will produce acute indigestion 
more quickly than anger. 

In ordinary intestinal indigestion, 
observe these rules: 

1.—If there are indications of too 
much acid in the body take one-third 
235 


CURING CATARRH , 


of a level teaspoonful of common bak¬ 
ing soda (sodium bicarbonate) and a 
glass of hot water thirty minutes be¬ 
fore each meal. Do this for, say, two 
weeks; then for another week take two 
doses of the soda; for the fourth week 
take one dose of soda daily, and then 
quit it. No, soda taken in this way 
and for such a short time will not hurt 
you, but it will help to hasten your vic¬ 
tory over the acidity which is usually 
a part of the indigestion. It is a good 
plan to keep up the hot water before 
meals for months. 

2.—If constipation is present, for a 
while take a tepid enema, having a 
heaping teasponful of baking soda in 
the water. Use as small amount of 
water as you can to obtain results. If 
you can get results with one pint, use 
no more. 


236 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


3. —Quit eating between meals. Use 
nothing but water between meals. Yes, 
taking milk and eggs and candy and 
broth and ice cream between meals is 
eating between meals. 

4. —Masticate your food better than 
you ever did before, taking at least 
twenty minutes for your smallest meal 
and thirty minutes for your largest 
one—at least twenty minutes. 

5. —Eat only foods that have been 
plainly cooked—no frying, no greasy 
foods, no messed up dishes like fancy 
dressings, puddings, cakes and crusty 
pastries. 

6. —Eat only two or three foods at 
a meal until you have given the diges¬ 
tion a chance to return to normal. No, 
it is not necessary to eat great variety 
to obtain sufficient nourishment. A 

23T 


CURING CATARRH, 


plan like this, for instance, would give 
you plenty of nourishment: 

Breakfast 

Milk, stale or toasted bread and 
butter. 

Lunch 

A cooked succulent vegetable, either 
an egg or a dish of cottage cheese, and 
crackers and butter. 

Dinner 

Lean meat or fish, baked potatoes, 
butter, ^nd one cooked succulent vege¬ 
table. 

One can obtain plenty of nourish¬ 
ment from a menu like that until the 
intestines have time to regain tone. 
Then make the menus more elaborate, 
and be sure to add raw vegetables to 
238 


COUGHS AND COLDS 

every dinner as soon as digestion im¬ 
proves. 

In addition to the outline above, ob¬ 
serve all health rules in this book, such 
as exercising, deep breathing, caring 
for the skin and correct drinking. 

One form of indigestion of special 
interest in this book is intestinal ca¬ 
tarrh, which is a condition in which 
the intestinal mucous membrane is so 
irritated that there is too free a flow 
of mucus. This condition may be so 
mild that there are almost no symp¬ 
toms. There may be too much gas in 
the intestines; alternate constipation 
and diarrhea may also occur. There 
may he discomfort or it may be absent. 

Ordinary intestinal catarrh needs 
no special treatment aside from the 
kind recommended under the heading 
of chronic catarrh. Eat carefully, ex- 
239 


CURING CATARRH , 


ercise, keep the body clean within and 
without—in brief, build up the general 
health through living so as to create 
first-class blood. Then the catarrhal 
condition soon begins to improve. 

If constipation is present I have 
found it a good plan to lubricate the 
bowel by giving the patient about a 
tablespoonful of paraffin oil daily— 
the preparation commonly known as 
mineral oil. Various makes will be 
found on the market. 

Mucous colitis merits special atten¬ 
tion for it is a disease that is generally 
considered incurable. Every patron 
who has come to me with this trouble 
has been told by other doctors that 
there is no way of recovering. Fortu¬ 
nately, this dark view is based on error. 
Those who have the will to recover can 
generally do so. The percentage of 
240 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


recoveries under my observation has 
been very large. Read this chapter if 
you have any kind of indigestion. 

In mucous colitis membranes, casts 
or great shreds of mucus are passed 
from time to time. Sometimes there is 
great abdominal pain before such pas¬ 
sage; sometimes it is merely discom¬ 
fort. Alternating constipation and 
diarrhea are sometimes annoying 
symptoms. The trouble is usually ac¬ 
companied by various forms of nerv¬ 
ousness. Ordinary mucous colitis is 
accompanied by great depression. One 
of the greatest problems is to instill 
a little hope and faith in the patients. 
Even when they see great improve¬ 
ment they are apt to slip back into the 
blues. My experience has been that 
people of good intellect who have this 
trouble can almost always overcome 
241 


CURING CATARRH\ 


it; but those who are short on intel¬ 
lect and long on depressing emotions 
are very difficult to help. 

What is the cause of mucous colitis? 
The same as the cause of other ca¬ 
tarrh, but here wrong eating is more 
in evidence than in most cases. Also, 
wrong direction of the thoughts and 
emotions plays a great part. 

To illustrate: A business man who 
had made a financial success when he 
was only thirty years old had applied 
himself so closely to winning the busi¬ 
ness game that he had ruined his 
health. The result was a severe case 
of mucous colitis. When he came 
under my observation he was not quite 
thirty-one years old. For four years 
he had been afflicted with this trouble, 
which was growing worse all the time. 
He had the form that gives great ab- 
242 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


dominal pains; he was alternately 
troubled with diarrhea and constipa¬ 
tion. Periodically he passed great 
shreds of mucus, and these spells left 
him very weak. Moderate intestinal 
hemorrhage was frequent. 

He had been under treatment all 
the time. Finally, in desperation, he 
pinned his doctors down to facts and 
wanted to know if they were merely 
playing with him for the sake of fees, 
or if they ever did obtain results; and 
if they did obtain results, how long 
did it take? Then he was told that his 
condition was incurable, but if he 
would give himself good care he might 
be fairly comfortable at most times. 

He quit doctoring, and for two 
months he drifted. Then he met one 
of my old patrons who recovered ten 
years previously, with no relapse. He 
243 


CURING CATARRH , 

hastened down to my office. He told 
me his tale of woe, and frankly ex¬ 
pressed his opinion of the medical pro¬ 
fession, myself included. Then he de¬ 
manded that I guarantee to cure him. 
I told him that I never cure anybody; 
that I did not cure the gentleman 
whom he had met who had made such 
a nice recovery under my care; that I 
supply the knowledge and guidance, 
but nature does the curing; that I had 
never failed to help a person of his 
age and condition back to health, and 
presumably I could help him too; that 
if he came to me it was a sort of a 
sporting venture, in which I would do 
my best and he would have to cooper¬ 
ate. And then I frankly told him that 
without any personal reason he had 
been very insulting to me, but I would 
overlook this, due to his physical and 
244 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


mental condition; however, in the 
future it would be neither tolerated 
nor overlooked, if he attempted to 
repeat. 

He placed himself in my care, and 
this was the principal part of the treat¬ 
ment: 

1.—On retiring in the evening and 
arising in the morning he was to re¬ 
peat so loud that he could hear the 
words, several times, this sentiment: 
“I am going to recover in spite of 
everything.” When the blues came 
on during the day he was to repeat 
these words: “I am now living ac¬ 
cording to the laws of nature; it is 
natural to be healthy; so I will and 
must grow well.” Why this form of 
autosuggestion ? Because it was neces¬ 
sary to eradicate from his mind the 
idea of incurability. Autosuggestion 
245 


CURING CATARRH , 


is a very powerful healing factor if it 
is used to assert truth. If it is used 
to assert fallacy or lies it is worse than 
nugatory—it is then harmful. Self- 
deception is the worst form of lying. 

2. —He had retired from business 
due to physical debility. He had been 
trying to walk miles at a time and 
usually finished in a semi-collapsed 
condition. I instructed him to walk 
just a few blocks at a time but sit out 
in the sunshine and rest. Then grad¬ 
ually increase his walks and exercise 
as he gained strength, but never exer¬ 
cise to the point of fagging. In other 
words, we reserved some of his energy 
for health building. 

3. —In the past he used to eat even 
when having his worst spells of indi¬ 
gestion. He was instructed to miss 
a meal or two entirely when having 

246 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


his worst troubles; at such times he 
could sip all the hot water he wished, 
adding a pinch of common baking 
soda on account of its sweetening 
effect. 

4. —To escape the evil effects of con¬ 
stipation until he could make the 
bowels function normally, we used the 
mildest laxatives we could think of— 
in his case agar-agar, mineral oil and 
cascara, keeping the amount as low 
as possible and still get results. We 
also used small tepid enemas in which 
we dissolved a heaped teaspoonful of 
baking soda to the quart of water. We 
used the soda because of his acid con¬ 
dition. 

5. —In the middle of the forenoon 
and in the middle of the afternoon he 
rested body and mind, that is, relaxed, 
for an hour. 


247 


CURING CATARRH , 


6.—As the digestive disturbance 
was extreme, affecting both stomach 
and bowels, we had to start with the 
simplest of foods. For a time we 
eliminated all products made of yeast, 
all meats, in fact we eliminated every¬ 
thing except the plainest of foods. 
The plan was as follows: 

Breakfast 

Crisped white crackers, butter and 
a glass of milk. 

Lunch 

Plainly cooked rice, glass of milk, 
and one plainly cooked succulent vege¬ 
table. 

Dinner 

Baked potato, butter, and one 
plainly cooked succulent vegetable. 

The reason for the white crackers 
248 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


was that although they are not as good 
food as the whole wheat products, they 
are easier to digest. Rice is also easy 
to digest. So is baked potato. The 
vegetables were given because when 
they are properly prepared they are 
easy to digest; they help to overcome 
the acidity of the body, and they help 
to regulate the bowels. 

As he improved, we allowed him to 
have fruit for breakfast; and we 
allowed more variety at lunch; and 
we soon let him have eggs or fish for 
dinner. Also we allowed him to have 
crisp head lettuce and tender celery, 
as soon as the bleeding from the lower 
bowel ceased. At the end of two 
months we were feeding him very 
much according to the outlines in the 
chapter on Chronic Catarrh. 

What were the results in this case? 

249 


CUEING CATARRH , 


Decided improvement in the digestion 
was noted in two weeks. He had less 
gas; he was less nervous, and he slept 
better. During the first month the 
bleeding from the bowels and the ab¬ 
dominal cramps vanished; the dis¬ 
charge of mucus grew less frequent 
and smaller in amount. At the end 
of two months the patient was feeling 
much stronger, and he was anxious to 
get back to business, but there was 
still some mucus in the intestines. 

As the young man had plenty of 
funds and for the time being no busi¬ 
ness connections he was told that it 
would be a good thing to go to some 
warm climate and spend a few months 
out of doors and build up his general 
health. He went to California and 
he remained there three months. He 
returned in excellent health. It took 
250 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


him, all told, about three months to 
conquer the mucous colitis. He could 
have done it without going to Cali¬ 
fornia, of course, for he was almost 
well when he started on his journey. 

He is now back in business harness, 
doing well in every way. 

The reason for this tale is that 
mucous colitis is the worst form of in¬ 
testinal indigestion of which I know. 
If you can cure it, you can cure any 
other kind of intestinal catarrh. And 
the outline for so doing is here given. 
It is impossible to describe in detail 
every kind of indigestion, and give the 
treatment. I have never seen two 
cases that were alike. The funda¬ 
mentals are alike, but the details differ. 

Read the two last chapters of this 
book. 

Many can take the directions here 
251 


CURING CATARRH , 


and help themselves back to health. 
Others lack the faculty and will have 
to have some one with the proper 
knowledge to give them personal 
guidance. 

Here again I wish to emphasize a 
truth that has been told elsewhere in 
this volume. I tell about good results 
obtained. The reason for these excel¬ 
lent results is not that the writer is a 
wonder—far, far from it. The reason 
is that right principles are used, and 
the sick are treated in accordance with 
the laws of nature. When this is done 
the results will come no matter who 
the guide or teacher or doctor may be. 


252 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


FOOD CLASSIFICATION 

PROTEINS 

The principal sources of protein are: 

1. Meats of all kinds (the lean part), 

such as beef, veal, mutton, lean 
pork, chicken, turkey, duck, 
goose, game, both feathered and 
furred, in fact, all lean flesh from 
animals and birds. 

2. Fish of all kinds, such as trout, 

salmon, herring, pickerel, pike, 
cod, halibut, mackerel, sturgeon, 
and shad. Also shellfish, like 
oysters (which are mostly water), 
clams, crabs and lobsters. 

3. Legumes, the chief of which are all 

kinds of dried beans, dried peas, 
lentils and peanuts. Also green 
peas, and both the green and the 
dried lima beans. 

4. Dairy products, including sweet 

milk, clabbered milk, buttermilk, 

253 


CURING CATARRH\ 


cottage cheese and all other kinds 
of cheese. Cream contains but 
little protein, and butter practi¬ 
cally none. 

5. Nuts, especially almonds, Brazil 
nuts, filberts, hickory nuts, pe¬ 
cans, English walnuts, butter¬ 
nuts, pistachios and pignolias. 
(Peanuts are legumes, not real 
nuts. Chestnuts contain much 
starch and only a little protein.) 

STARCHES 

The chief sources of our starchy 

foods are: 

1. Cereals, the most important being 

wheats of all kinds, Indian corn, 
rice, rye, barley, oats. No mat¬ 
ter in what form we eat them— 
in bread, cakes, mushes, flaked or 
puffed cereals—they are starchy. 

2. Tubers, the most important being 

Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes and 
Jerusalem artichoke. The dash- 
een is also a tuber, which resem¬ 
bles the Irish potato in consist¬ 
ency, and has an agreeable flavor. 

254 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


3. Legumes, especially when they are 

ripe. The ripe limas, navy beans 
and other kinds of ripe beans, 
peas, lentils and peanuts are 
starchy. Green limas and young 
peas contain more starch than the 
other vegetables usually classi¬ 
fied as succulent. 

4. Nuts, but only a few varieties. 

Acorns, dried chestnuts and co- 
coanuts are rich in starch. 

Hubbard squash contains about the 
same proportion of starch as the Irish 
potato. 

Parsnips are rich in starch. 

Green bananas are about as starchy 
as Irish potatoes, but ripe bananas 
contain only a trace of starch, for it 
has been turned to sugar. 

Pumpkins are of watery consist¬ 
ency, and can be classed with the suc¬ 
culent vegetables. 

Tapioca and sago are very starchy. 

Corn starch is the starchy essence of 
the corn. 

Spaghetti and macaroni are cereals f 
hence starchy. 


255 


CURING CATARRH, 


SUGARS 

The principal sources of sugars are: 

1. Sweet fruits, the most important 

of which are ripe bananas, cur¬ 
rants, sweet grapes, raisins, sweet 
prunes, figs, dates and persim¬ 
mons. All ripe fruits contain 
some sugar and the dried fruits 
are rich in this food element. 

2. Sugar cane and sugar beets, from 

which nearly all of the refined 
white sugar is made. 

3. Honey. 

4. Sap of the sugar maple. 

FATS AND OILS 

The chief sources of our fats are: 

1. Dairy products—cream, butter and 

some rich cheeses. 

2. Flesh of dead animals, especially 

pork, mutton and beef, that have 
been fattened. 

3. Fat fish, such as herring, shad and 

salmon trout. 

4. Legumes* Some kinds of peanuts 

256 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


are very oily, and so are soy 
beans. 

5. Nuts of nearly every kind. Al¬ 
monds, Brazil nuts, filberts, hick¬ 
ory nuts, pecans, English wal¬ 
nuts, butternuts, cocoanuts, pis¬ 
tachios and acorns are rich in oil. 

SUCCULENT VEGETABLES 

The principal succulent vegetables 
are: 

Asparagus, beets, cabbage, carrots, 
turnips, parsnips, cauliflower, cucum¬ 
ber, egg plant, lettuce, okra (gumbo), 
onions, radish, summer squash, toma¬ 
toes, spinach, kohl-rabi, kale, Brussels 
sprouts, cone artichoke, chard, string 
beans, celery, turnip tops, lotus, en¬ 
dive, dandelion, oyster plant, rutabaga 
and garlic. Though corn is really a 
cereal, corn in the milk, either on the 
cob or canned, and green peas may 
also be classed with the succulent vege¬ 
tables. Also the pumpkin. 

Mushroom is a fungus. Those who 
are fond of it may partake occasion- 

257 


CURING CATARRH , 


ally, but fungous growths cannot be 
recommended as a steady diet. 

Young lima beans are quite starchy, 
as much so as Irish potatoes. Par¬ 
snips are also quite rich in starch. 

Radishes are delicious peeled and 
cooked. 

Macaroni and spaghetti are not 
vegetables. They are made from 
wheat and are very starchy. They 
are cereal foods. 

RAW SALAD VEGETABLES 

These are also succulent vegetables. 

The principal salad vegetables are: 

Lettuce, celery, endive, romaine, 
chicory, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, 
celery cabbage, parsley, field lettuce, 
cress. All leaves that are relished may 
be used for salad purposes. 

Raw onions in moderation may be 
used for flavoring, and garlic likewise. 
Those who are fond of raw root vege¬ 
tables and have good digestive power 
may occasionally eat some raw car¬ 
rots or turnips, but they should masti¬ 
cate these foods very well. Grated 
carrot tastes well in salads. 


258 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


FRUITS 

The term “acid fruit” means fruit 
that is quite sour, like sour apples, 
pineapples and lemons. 

“Subacid fruit” is a mild fruit, con¬ 
taining only a little acid, such as mild 
pears, sweet apples and good blueber¬ 
ries. 

Some of the most common juicy 
fruits are: 

Apples, lemons, oranges, peaches,, 
pears, strawberries, apricots, avoca- 
does, blackberries, cherries, cranber¬ 
ries, currants, gooseberries, grapes* 
huckleberries, blueberries, mulberries, 
nectarines, olives, pineapples, plums, 
raspberries and whortleberries. 

The melons (watermelon, musk- 
melon, cantaloupe, casaba, honey dew, 
etc.), rhubarb stalk and tomatoes are 
so like fruit that for practical purposes 
we can call them so. 

The most important sweet fruits 
are: 

Ripe bananas, sweet prunes, sweet 
grapes, raisins, dried currants, figs, 
dates and persimmons. 

259 


CUBING CATARRH , 


Cooking Hints 

In most of my manuals of instruc¬ 
tions reference is made to “Eating for 
Health and Efficiency,” with the 
recommendation that the reader ob¬ 
tain that work and follow directions 
in various chapters. This has aroused 
the ire of some readers who see in it a 
brazen book-selling scheme; they say 
that everything should be complete in 
one book. 

By adding 500 pages to this book, 
it would be possible to give a full trea¬ 
tise on the subject of selecting, pre¬ 
paring and combining foods, but it is 
not practicable to do this. This has 
been done, however, in “Eating for 
Health and Efficiency, ,, which tells 
260 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


what foods to select, how to prepare 
them, how to combine them, how to 
dress them and which ones of them to 
eat in various circumstances of climate 
and occupation. I am convinced that 
every family should have a work of 
this nature, written from the stand¬ 
point of health. True, a work of this 
kind costs a few dollars, but it is good 
for life and it can be used to save a 
person from much disease and suffer¬ 
ing, yes, even from premature death. 
When intelligently used, it can easily 
be made to pay thousands of dollars 
worth of dividends in health. Every 
family owes it to itself to have this 
kind of information in the home. 

Just pause and consider a little: 
The human body is composed of air, 
water and food. Food is the basis of 
the material part of life. It is the 
261 


CURING CATARRH , 


stone and brick and wood and glass 
and mortar and steel that enter into 
the building of our bodies. You have 
watched builders erect various kinds 
of edifices. They do not scramble 
their materials into a haphazard heap. 
They know how and where to place 
the different materials they use. They 
do not throw window panes in the 
mortar; they do not attempt to attach 
steel beams to each other by means 
of wooden pegs; they do not scatter 
great blocks of stone on the roof. 

The human body is far more deli¬ 
cate, complex and important than any 
edifice erected by man. If you value 
this human structure of yours supply 
to it the right kind of food, in correct 
combinations, in proper quantities, at 
propitious times. For some thou¬ 
sands of years a few individuals have 
262 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


known that right feeding is the most 
important factor in maintaining phys¬ 
ical health, or in regaining lost health. 
Now that the printing presses have 
been at work for several centuries 
everybody ought to have this knowl¬ 
edge. But vital truth does travel very 
slowly. 

You ought to have a complete trea¬ 
tise on the subject of food and feed¬ 
ing, and then you ought to study it 
until you know the fundamentals. 
Your health largely depends on such 
knowledge, and health is the founda¬ 
tion on which you can erect your struc¬ 
ture of successful life. 

This is not a complete treatise on 
food preparation; it is merely a col¬ 
lection of a few important points. I 
trust that after you have absorbed the 
knowledge in these pages and put it 
263 


CURING CATARRH, 


into practice you will do yourself and 
your family the favor of making your 
food and feeding knowledge as com¬ 
plete as it needs to be. 

Meat: Prepare by means of stew¬ 
ing, baking in the oven, roasting in the 
old fashion before or above an open 
fire, broiling or steaming. Or use a 
fireless cooker or a pressure cooker. 
If you use either of the latter two 
methods you will find directions ac¬ 
companying the utensils, but you need 
not season as they direct. The proper 
way to obtain a tender, juicy piece of 
meat is to apply high heat in the very 
beginning, for about fifteen minutes 
in case it is a moderate sized piece of 
meat, and then finish the cooking at a 
lower temperature. If you place a 
piece of meat in a cool oven, grad- 
264 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


ually raise the temperature and finish 
with high heat, you are very apt to 
have a tough, dry roast. If you put 
the meat into a piping hot oven the 
heat sears the surface and keeps the 
juices in the meat. 

If meat is boiled it should not be 
seasoned until it is almost cooked. 
Season in moderation always. An ex¬ 
cess of salt tends to age the individual 
prematurely. 

To mix greasy meat juices with 
flour and other kinds of starch, making 
thickened gravy, or brown gravy is a 
mistake from the standpoint of health. 
Cooking grease into flour or into other 
forms of starch produces food that is 
very helpful in building catarrh and 
other ills. 

Frying is the most objectionable 
mode of cooking. The process of fry- 
265 


CURING CATARRH , 


ing renders a part of the food indi¬ 
gestible, and after a while helps to 
ruin the digestive apparatus. “But I 
do not fry in lard; I use butter/’ some 
say, thinking that this makes the proc¬ 
ess all right. It is not the source of the 
fat that is objectionable, it is the fry¬ 
ing process itself. Butter-fried foods 
are as bad as lard-fried ones. Others 
are still more virtuous and say: “I 
don’t use animal grease; I fry in olive 
oil.” These individuals have the idea 
that if they use vegetable fats for fry¬ 
ing the process is innocent. Again, it 
is not the source of the fat that is ob¬ 
jectionable; it is the frying process 
itself that is bad. Don’t fry anything 
if you are desirous of building the best 
kind of health. Avoid greasy cooking. 

Season the meats when the cooking 
process is almost finished or let each 
266 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


individual do most of the seasoning 
at the table. Pepper, mustard, sharp 
sauces and hot condiments are irri¬ 
tants which overstimulate the appetite, 
lead to overeating and hurt the diges¬ 
tive organs. 

Pickled and preserved meats are 
rather poor foods, and should seldom 
be used. 

Catarrhal subjects should never eat 
meat more than once a day in cold 
weather, and not to exceed three times 
a week in summer. 

Meat is not a necessary food. 

Fish is best boiled, broiled or baked. 
Fish easily becomes tainted, so select 
it with care to see that it is fresh. 

Avoid fried fish. 

Eggs can be prepared in your 
favorite way, with the exception that 

267 


CURING CATARRH, 


they are not to be cooked in much 
grease. Greasing a pan enough to 
keep the eggs (or other foods) from 
sticking does not do any harm. Eggs 
can be made into omelettes or 
scrambled. But to cook eggs in sput¬ 
tering grease is wrong. 

Soft boiled eggs, poached eggs and 
coddled eggs are easy to digest. 

If properly prepared, hard boiled 
eggs are also easy to digest. The 
wrong way to cook a hard boiled egg is 
to leave it in boiling water five or six 
minutes. The right way is to cook 
it twenty or thirty minutes. Then it 
becomes mealy and tender. 

Potatoes are best baked, or boiled 
in the jacket or steamed. If potatoes 
are peeled, soaked in cold water and 
then cooked they lose a large part of 
268 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


their nutritive value and a very large 
portion of their health-bearing virtues 
—natural salts. 

If potatoes are well scrubbed and 
baked, they can be eaten peeling and 
all. From the standpoint of health, 
the best portion of the potato is close 
to the skin. 

If you wish to spoil your potatoes 
fry them—German, French, or Amer¬ 
ican method will do. It is not the 
nationality of the method that is ob¬ 
jectionable; it is the frying process 
itself that is bad. 

Bread should be made as near as 
possible from whole grain flour, that 
is, flour made by grinding the entire 
grain. White flour products are very 
easy to digest, hut they are poor foods. 
Refined flour is poor in mineral ele- 
269 


CURING CATARRH, 


merits, poor in the vital principles that 
build rich blood and strength and 
health. It is a blood-starving food. 

Whole wheat flour products are a 
little harder to digest than the white 
flour foods, but ordinary digestion will 
take care of the whole grain products, 
and they are the ones that should be 
used. Unfortunately, the great flour 
milling interests have found it to their 
financial advantage to mislead the 
public on this point, which is one rea¬ 
son that they now are advertising eat¬ 
ing bran. Yes, there are plenty of 
“experts” who will tell of the superi¬ 
ority of white flour—for a considera¬ 
tion. And there are multitudes of 
housewives who are deceived to accept 
the death-dealing white loaves. 

If you value your health get the 
habit of using as much whole grain 
270 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


flour as you can, and as little of the 
white flour products as possible. 

Yeast bread should be stale before 
it is consumed, and bread should al¬ 
ways be well masticated. Avoid fresh 
yeast bread. 

Toasting starts the digestive proc¬ 
ess by changing a part of the bread 
starch into a form of sugar, and there 
is no objection to it. The best method 
of toasting is to slice stale bread fairly 
thin and put into a slow oven until it 
is crisped throughout. 

Muffinsgems, baking powder bis¬ 
cuits and soda biscuits can safely be 
eaten fresh provided they are made 
thin, well baked and thoroughly masti¬ 
cated. They take the place of bread. 

Corn bread should be made thin and 
baked crisp and crusty. It should be 
extra well masticated. 

271 


CURING CATARRH , 


To use sugar, jelly, jam and fruit 
preserves on bread is a mistake, for in 
the end the result is abnormal fer¬ 
mentation and production of an ex¬ 
cessive amount of acid and gas in the 
digestive organs. This helps to build 
catarrh in those who have a catarrhal 
tendency. 

Cooked cereals, that is, mushes 
made out of grains, such as oats or 
wheat, are good food provided no 
sugar is added to them, and further 
provided that they are thoroughly 
masticated. It should require fifteen 
minutes to eat a dish of such cooked 
cereal. But most people take but 
three or four minutes for this purpose 
and bury the cereal in sugar. “How 
can one masticate mush?” is a frequent 
question. It is not the chewing that 
272 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


is important in eating this dish, it is 
the insalivation. Cereal mushes are 
starchy and should be well mixed with 
saliva. Otherwise they readily go into 
abnormal fermentation. It is custom¬ 
ary to feed such food to children. 
The mushes are rich in nourishment, 
but they are very poor foods for the 
young people because children swal¬ 
low them without giving them mouth 
attention, and the result is fermenta¬ 
tion in the digestive organs, with ex¬ 
cessive production of gas and acid. 
Then follow such troubles as adenoids, 
enlarged glands, swollen tonsils, ca¬ 
tarrh and various forms of skin 
eruptions. 

Verily this sounds less and less like 
a cooking chapter. 

But it is well to remember that 
breakfast mushes are mostly a curse, 
273 


CURING CATARRH , 


especially for children. It is all right 
for slow and careful masticaters to eat 
mushes. 

White or refined sugar is one of our 
health problems. A person quickly 
acquires a taste for sugar. It quickly 
digests, and can in a short time be 
turned into heat and energy. Its one 
virtue is that it is a quickly available 
source of heat and energy. 

Its great fault is that it is almost 
a pure carbon, a dead food, devoid of 
all health-giving properties. From 
the health standpoint it is the worst 
of all our staples. It should be eaten 
in very limited quantities. We ought 
to obtain most of our sugar from vari¬ 
ous kinds of berries, melons and fruits; 
also from honey, maple sugar and the 
dark sugars. Instead of eating a hun- 
274 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


dred pounds of white sugar apiece each 
year, as Americans do, they should 
confine themselves to about one-tenth 
of this quantity. 

Vegetables: First look up the list 
of succulent vegetables in this book, 
and then review in your mind how they 
are usually prepared. Let us use 
string beans as an example: They are 
first made ready, then placed in salted 
water wdiich often contains a piece of 
bacon or other fat meat; then they are 
cooked until tender; then the cooking 
water is drained off; then some sort 
of sauce, either of milk and flour, or 
some kind of greasy substance, is con¬ 
cocted, and then this disguised vege¬ 
table is served. 

If a person studied to do the worst 
possible, it would be difficult to pre- 
275 


CURING CATARRH , 

pare a more worthless dish from the 
health standpoint; that kind of cook¬ 
ing deprives the valuable vegetables 
of most of their salts. Let us see how 
string beans should be prepared to 
give the consumer full benefit: 

After stringing and washing, place 
the beans in clear unseasoned water 
and allow to cook until tender. Then 
season moderately and serve with the 
cooking water. 

That is all there is to it. Let us see 
why this is the correct way: 

Using salt in the water merely adds 
a chemical of which the body has no 
need when the eating is right; an ex¬ 
cess of salt toughens the food. Add¬ 
ing meat or grease while the vegetable 
is cooking makes the beans too diffi¬ 
cult to digest—greasy cooking in the 
end produces indigestion. If salt is 
276 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


desired, add the salt when the beans 
are almost ready to be taken from the 
fire. Then the vegetable is not made 
tough. The cooking water contains 
most of the valuable cell salts origi¬ 
nally in the string beans; as these cell 
salts are health-builders they should 
be consumed. Use a moderate amount 
of cooking water. 

Really, no dressing has to be used, 
but most people prefer it. For dress¬ 
ing use a little butter, or some real 
cream, or oil, or a little salt, or salt 
and lemon juice. Avoid vinegar in 
dressing vegetables. Use tart fruit 
juices instead. 

Why this lengthy discourse on the 
modest string bean? 

Because it applies to almost all of 
the vegetables. You can take turnips, 
carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, onions 
277 


CURING CATARRH , 


or almost any succulent vegetable and 
prepare in this manner, so as to build 
health. Cook them plainly, without 
adding meat or grease while the cook¬ 
ing is going on; retain the cooking 
water because that contains most of 
the health-building salts; and use only 
simple seasoning. Serving vegetables 
in thin flour or starch paste is poor 
taste, and very poor cooking. 

Steaming and fireless cooking and 
pressure cooking are good methods of 
preparing vegetables. 

Vegetable salads: For a list of 
these vegetables see the paragraphs 
under the heading of Raw Salad Vege¬ 
tables. 

The raw vegetables contain salts 
and juices that help to keep the blood 
alkaline and pure and healthy. If pos- 
278 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


sible, raw vegetables should form a 
part of at .least one meal daily—make 
it possible. It would be fine to serve 
them twice a day. 

The raw root vegetables are some¬ 
what difficult to digest. Some find it 
trying to digest raw cabbage and raw 
onions. But the average digestive 
apparatus will take good care of let¬ 
tuce, celery and other leafy salad 
vegetables. Any of the raw leafy 
vegetables that the individual relishes 
and is able to digest make good salad 
materials. Those who have excellent 
digestion can at times add raw root 
vegetables to their salad, such as car¬ 
rots, turnips and radishes; or cucum¬ 
bers; or any other raw vegetable that 
pleases the taste. Raw vegetables 
should be very well masticated. 

Some like to make combination 
279 


CURING CATARRH\ 


salads containing from four to eight 
or even more vegetables. This may 
serve for those with exceptionally good 
digestion, but the best way is to eat 
one or two or three raw vegetables as 
the salad part of the meal, and let the 
other fellow have the complex mix¬ 
tures. Simplicity is an aid to health. 

The chief reason for eating raw 
vegetables is to furnish elements to 
keep the blood in its normal alkaline 
reaction. Vinegar is acidulating to 
the body, and for this reason it should 
not be used on salads or in any other 
way. Those who want to make their 
foods sour should add lemon juice, or 
grapefruit juice, or pineapple juice, 
or the juice of any other tart fruit. 
It is well to remember that a mod¬ 
erate amount of these fruit acids does 
not acidulate the body, but vinegar has 
280 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


this evil effect. Those who like mixed 
salad dressings should know that 
lemon juice can be employed where 
vinegar has been used in the past. 
People with natural taste enjoy raw 
vegetables without dressing. A little 
salt may be used; or salt and oil; or 
salt, oil and lemon juice; or lemon 
juice and salt. 

The greatest blood-purifying aid is 
obtained when the salad ingredients 
are raw. 

Fruit salads are best when the fruits 
or berries used are raw. A liberal 
amount of lettuce or celery mixed with 
the fruit improves the salad as a 
health-builder. 

Fruits: They are best raw, with¬ 
out sugar. Much fruit is spoiled by 
being made into jelly, jam and pre¬ 
serves. Canned vegetables are quite 
281 


CURING CATARRH ’ 


good when fresh ones are out of the 
question, but canned fruits ferment 
too easily in the digestive tract, and 
they are usually embalmed in syrup. 
If fresh fruits are not to be had, get 
a supply of good dried fruits, or evap¬ 
orated fruits. Use canned fruits 
rather seldom. “But my fruits are 
home canned,” I hear ye good house¬ 
wife say. It is the canning in syrup 
and the subsequent abnormal ferment¬ 
ing to which objection is made, not the 
place where the canning is done. 

Cooked fruits should be consumed 
the same day as they are prepared. 

Fruits are health builders when they 
are not ruined in preparation and com¬ 
bination. The chief mistake made is 
to dose them with sugar. Raisins, figs 
and dates can be used as sweeteners. 
In baking apples, for instance: Core 
282 


COUGHS AND COLDS 


the apples, and fill the centers with 
thoroughly soaked raisins, using the 
juice for dressing or sauce on the 
apple. (If the raisins are not soaked 
they will not sweeten the apple.) The 
results are good. 

These are a few fundamental hints 
on cooking for health. I hope they 
will help you, also that they will arouse 
your interest enough so that you will 
learn more of the subject of food and 
feeding. 

Health is yours if you make a rea¬ 
sonable effort, physically and men¬ 
tally, to obtain it. 


283 


Eating for Health and Efficiency 

A Course of Health Instruction: 

In Five Volumes, Price $10.00 

CONTENTS OF COMPLETE 
WORK 

BOOK ONE 

CHAPTEB PAGE 

1. The Importance of Proper Eating . . 1 

An illustration. Disease cured by proper 
eating. Building of strong bodies. Feed¬ 
ing most important health factor. How the 
body uses foods. Menu for school child. 

2. Food Classification.19 

Starches. Sugars. Oils and Fats. Succu¬ 
lent vegetables. Salad vegetables. Juicy 
fruits and sweet fruits. Menu for young 
people with pimply faces. 

3. Meat Eating.37 

Ripened meats. Fresh meats best. Meats 
easy to digest. Overeating of meats. Meats 

as stimulants. How often to eat meats. 

Milk, eggs and dairy products. 

4. Cold Weather Eating for Meat Eaters . 51 

Balanced meals. Advantages of proper eat¬ 
ing. Menus for sedentary individuals. 

Menus explained. Menu for manual la¬ 
borers. 


CONTENTS OF COMPLETE WORK 

CHiPT ™ PAGE 

5. The Beneficial Effects of a Correct 

Diet.. 

Money saved. Earning capacity increased. 
Common troubles, like colds, bad breath 
11 that tired feeling, ’ ’ insomnia, coated 
tongue, obesity and bad complexion cured 
by right eating. Face and figure improved 
and beauty increased. 

6. Vegetarian Diet.81 

All necessary food principles in vegetarian 
diet. Milk and eggs as addition to vege¬ 
tarian food. Effects of overeating of 
starch. Menus for sedentary individuals 

and manual laborers. Fruitarians. 

7. Cold Weather Eating for Vegetarians . 94 

Vegetarianism and health. Menus for sed¬ 
entary individuals. Cost of some vegetable 
foods. Menu for laborer. 

BOOK TWO 

8. Cooking for Health —a .... Ill 
Introduction. Meat cooking. Beeipes. 
Stewing, boiling, baking, roasting, broiling, 
steaming, fireless cooking^ pressure cooking, 
frying, seasoning. Preparing eggs and fish. 

9. Cooking for Health —b .... 124 
Preparing beans, peas and lentils. Prepar¬ 
ing all kinds of cereals—bread, biscuit, 
macaroni, mushes, etc. Cooking potatoes 

and other tubers. 


CONTENTS OF COMPLETE WORK 

CHAPTEK PAGE 

10. Cooking for Health —c .... 135 
Preparing succulent vegetables. Prepara¬ 
tions and recipes for vegetable salads, fruit 

and vegetable salads, fruit and nut and 
vegetable salads. Sala^ dressings. Cook¬ 
ing fruit. Dairy products. 

11. Warm Weather Eating for Meat Eaters 158 
Menus for sedentary workers, and com¬ 
ments. Menus for laborers. General bints 

for summer eating. 

12. Warm Weather Eating for Vegetarians 173 

Menus for light workers. Menus for labor¬ 
ers. Colds—their prevention and cure. 

Diet for those who easily take cold. 

13. Correct Pood Combining —a . . . 190 

Importance of correct combining. Preju¬ 
dices regarding food. Simplicity in feed¬ 
ing. 

14. Correct Food Combining— b . • . 197 

Combining of meat and other proteins, fats 

and oils ; milk, starchy foods, vegetables, 
juicy fruits and acid fruits and sweet 
fruits, sugar and other sweets. 

15. Correct Food Combining —c . , . 204 

Notes and illustrations of combining. Nu¬ 
merous meals planned. 


CONTENTS OF COMPLETE WORK 


BOOK THREE 

CHAPTER PAGE 

16. Eating to Reduce Weight .... 219 
Fatness a disease. Several reducing plans. 
Normal weight. Reducing menus. 

17. Eating to Gain Weight .... 235 
Thinness and longevity. Hints for different 
types of thin people. Thinness and hyper¬ 
acidity. Menus for thin people. Chronic 
catarrh and its cure. 

18. Eating in Pregnancy and During the 

Nursing Period. 248 

f * Eating for two. ’ ’ Eating during the first 
half of pregnancy; during the last half. 
Morning sickness and other disturbances 
seldom necessary. Easy childbirth. Eat¬ 
ing during nursing period. Menus. 

19. Feeding the Baby. 263 

How often to feed. Mother’s milk best. 
Artificial feeding. Cow’s milk in infancy. 

Fruit and vegetable juices. Weaning. 
Cleanliness. 

20. Feeding the Children .... 280 

Feeding during second year. Feeding after 
second year. Lunching. Menus. Simple 
feeding. Various foods at different ages. 
Infantile paralysis. 


CONTENTS OF COMPLETE WORK 

CHAPTER PAGE 

21. Eating after Passing Middle Age . . 303 

Necessity of changing habits with passing 
years. Chronic disease unnecessary. Rules 

for retaining health. Menus for light 
workers. Menus for manual laborers. 

BOOK FOUR 

22. Laxative Foods.319 

Constipation a serious trouble. Experi¬ 
ences. Laxatives, cathartics and enemas. 
Menus for the constipated. How to substi¬ 
tute one food for another. 

23. Constipating Foods. 331 

Refined foods and constipation. Effect of 
fresh vegetables, fruits and cream. Treat¬ 
ment of persistent diarrhea. Coffee and 

tea and constipation. 

24. When and How to Eat .... 339 
Work and eating time. Number of meals 

per day. Regularity. Heavy work and di¬ 
gestion. How to eat. Importance of thor¬ 
ough mastication. Rules for eating. 

25. How Much to Eat. 350 

Size of many portions. Rules for learning 
how much one needs. How to detect over¬ 
eating. Menus for those suffering with the 
hives. 


CONTENTS OF COMPLETE WORK 

Chapter page 

26. Feeding in Acute Disease . . . 360 

Pain and fever. Feeding in fever. Typhoid 

and its treatment. Menus after fevers and 
fasts. 

27. Feeding in Chronic Disease . . . 376 

Cause of chronic disease. Its cure. Eules 

for feeding. Cleansing diet. Menus. How 
to retain health. 

28. Eating Away from Home—When Trav¬ 

eling .387 

Banquets. Luncheons and teas. Eating 
when traveling. Eating in country hotels. 
Meals planned. 

29. Popular Menus and Comment . . . 396 

Menus of a club, a diner, a diet squad. 
Feeding the soldiers. Thanksgiving day 

menu. 


BOOK FIVE 

30. Eating in the Country and in Country 

Towns. 4i3 

Eeducing high living cost. Gardening. 
Popular country meals. Milk and eggs on 
the farm. Menus. Country cooking. 

31. Eaw Foods. 433 

Foods that are good raw. Eaw cereals 
hard to digest. Meaning of disease symp¬ 
toms—coated tongue, red nose, bad com¬ 
plexion, falling hair, cold sores, etc. 


CONTENTS OF COMPLETE WORK 

CHAPTER PAGE 

32. Candies and Confections .... 443 
Craving for sweets. Sweet fruits and their 
uses. Meals containing sweet fruits. 
Candy meals. 

33. Nuts and Peanuts.450 

Digestion of nuts. Their food value. Vari¬ 
ous nut preparations. Peanut preparations 

in detail. 

34. Diet Hints for Various Types . . . 464 

Nervous types. Thin people. Plethoric in¬ 
dividuals. Fat people. Hints for the rheu¬ 
matic. Menus for rheumatics. 

35. What and When to Drink . . .476 

Coffee, tea, chocolate and fruit drinks. Al¬ 
cohol. Beer substitutes. Milk. Cereal 
drinks. Water the best beverage. Milk 
diet. 

36. Popular Healing Systems Explained . 487 
Allopaths, Eclectics and Homeopaths. Me¬ 
chanical systems, like osteopathy and chiro¬ 
practic. Mental systems like Christian 
Science and New Thought. The rational 
system. 

The Complete Work in 5 Volumes 
Price $10.00 Postpaid 

GRANT PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC., 

1133 Broadway, New York 































































